


Determination, Sevenfold

by oldblueeyes



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Gen, Neutral Route, Original Character(s), True Pacifist Route, Undertale Spoilers, all the other humans fall into the underground all at once, also the humans are older in age, also there is a lot of swearing so yeah, fear not my child there is a reason for everything being the way it is, shipping isn't the main focus of this story but i guess it's in there so i tagged it, the reason for that is they're dealing with much heavier issues younger children never could, they're at least sixteen but no more than nineteen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldblueeyes/pseuds/oldblueeyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, two races ruled the Earth: humans and monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.<br/>Many years later, in the year 2016, there is a legend surrounding Mt. Ebott... a legend that says those who climb the mountain never return...</p><p>Seven friends dare to climb Mt. Ebott in the hopes of seeking the truth to the legend that all who climb don't return, only to fall into the Underground, lost within the kingdom of monsters and trying to find their way to the surface. Seven human souls, which are enough to break the barrier if collected, are now all in one place and wandering the kingdom, within the monsters' reach... </p><p>(Undertale AU where seven humans fall into the underground all at once instead of one by one over time)<br/>(Brief mentions of potentially triggering content in future chapters, but nothing explicit. Also, there will be a chapter note/summary before you read a chapter that contains the mention[s] so nothing sneaks up on anybody.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fallen Down

     "Mt. Ebott, huh?" I inquired, craning my neck to get a full view of the looming beast of a mountain that rested miles ahead. It was a little hard to get a good view without rolling down the window of Charlie's jeep, but I did what I could. It didn't seem to me that there was anything special about the mountain we were headed for: it stood tall and silent like a lonely soldier, clad in a dense forest uniform, with a few craggy cliff-faces as it's sparse yet notable weapon. To be honest, it looked just the same as any old mountain, to be perfectly honest. "What's so great about it?" My voice sounded a little out of place within the odd silence of the car. We'd been packed into this car headed for Mt. Ebott for about two hours now, and at this point we'd all gotten over the initial high of the road trip, letting the once bustling conversation slow to where we could actually tell who was saying what.

     I hadn't really put much thought into what we were actually doing once the idea of visiting Mt. Ebott had been proposed at first: within our friend group, lots of ideas got tossed around on a daily basis. It was actually pretty rare that we would find one that garnered enough interest and fit everybody's schedules to pull off, and perhaps I was delayed in my thought process, but I was just now wondering what the point of the trip was. We already lived in a small town near a mountain range, so change of scenery couldn't have been the reason.

     "Manon, it's literally a legendary mountain," The empty air was filled with Gracia's voice as she turned around in the front seat to look at me, her light blue eyes reflecting the sunlight like pools of clear water. "What more do you want?" Murmurs of our friends' gentle laughter, including my own, filled the car at a lazy pace. Though her words were drenched with sarcasm, I knew not to take her tone to heart. It was almost like Gracia had never heard of the word "subtlety" before: she spoke plainly and without remorse, and those who weren't familiar with her were liable to get their feelings hurt or get the sense that she didn't like them (which may or may not be true, depending on who you were). Yet, if you were able to keep a thick skin and keep up with her wit, you were almost guaranteed to gain her trust. She shook out her hair, full of shoulder length russet curls, and shrugged at me with a look that tacitly asked what more I expected from the situation.

     "Yeah. What could be better than a legend?" Charlie piped in from the driver's seat, keeping his eyes on the road but his ears and heart on us. I caught a glimpse of his dark eyes in the rear view mirror, noticing he had that look again: the look of anticipation, coupled with the excited glow his whole body seemed to radiate. Charlie was really into superheroes and fantastic tales of worlds in peril, so it was no wonder why this apparent legend had grasped his interest so tightly. No matter the situation, if there was a good story to be told, then he was unquestionably on board with whatever else came with it... A bit foolhardy in some respects, but his kind heart just craved adventure, that was all.

     "I can think of a few things... Pizza, that's what's better than a legend." The rhetorical question was answered by Leah, who was sitting in the backseat with me, leaning against the window on the opposite side. She hadn't looked up from her cell phone all the while, scrolling through whatever social media app she was obsessed with this week. Leah had an uncanny ability to be alone in a crowd of people, which she seemed to be doing up until now. She finally looked up at me, her youthful face donning her usual sweet smile before cracking up at my good-natured eye roll. "Also, I really have to poop, so drive faster." She added before typing out something on her phone. Leah didn't have much of a filter either, but we were pretty used to that. She truly was a unique individual, even for our ragtag group.

     Charlie laughed before briefly glancing in the rear view mirror at Leah, who wasn't looking up anyways. "I'm going as fast as I can without breaking the law more than we already are! If we get pulled over, I'll totally get fined for how many people we've managed to squeeze into this car." Leah didn't look up or give much of a response other than a quick giggle as she brushed her long dark hair out of her face. Charlie wasn't wrong about what he said, though: we managed to cram seven people into this jeep, seating five of us normally while having two in the very back... totally illegal, since we'd been driving on major roads and interstates. Charlie was obviously the driver (it was his jeep, after all), and Gracia had taken the shotgun seat, like she usually did. In the back seat was me on the far left, Leah on the far right, and Thomas in the middle.

     Thomas hadn't said much throughout the trip. He had been buzzing with excitement like the rest of us had in the beginning, but as soon as an hour passed, the poor thing had grown sleepy. He was a little hunched over, holding his book bag in his arms while using it as a pillow, his mouth slightly agape and his thick, dark curls preparing to be the best bed head the world had ever seen once he woke up. He'd insisted on bringing his bag with us, claiming we never know what we might need... Thomas always was a careful type like that. We were going to protest, but the innocence and pure concern in his dark eyes left us very little ground to stand on. He was pretty much the sweetheart of our group that could get whatever he wanted with a single smile. I started to wonder if his neck would be alright after being in that stiff position for a while, but I decided to leave him be.

     That left the "illegal" two in the very back: Sabine and Jeanette. Both of them were the smallest two of our group, so they readily volunteered to take one for the team and hide back there. Thinking ahead, they had brought blankets to lay down on so that the ride would be more comfortable for them. Smart little bitches, those two. They hadn't fallen asleep like Thomas did, but rather leaned against a side of the car and played on their phones, just as Leah had. Sabine and I had similar hair texture: thick, curly, and long, but the difference was in the color. While my hair was an ambivalent dark shade between black and dark brown, Sabine's hair color reminded me of milk chocolate if it had too much milk in it: a light brown that complimented her tan complexion and light eyes. I always did find her beauty marks that dappled her face in various spots to be endearing, even if she didn't think so. Despite Sabine's tendency to think aloud, she had been mostly quiet on this trip once everything was winding down, which was rather unusual for her. Either way, she seemed content reading what seemed to be a news article, so I opted not to bother her.

     Jeanette, on the other hand, was pretty much the embodiment of a stereotypical teen romance novel protagonist: blonde, short, great skin, and talented in all sorts of musical instruments. I watched her as she concentrated hard on playing a piano game on her phone, her eyes fixed upon the screen and listening to the music she made through her headphones. I couldn't think of one person back home who didn't like her or not want to be around her, for she was just so captivating and warm. Her smile could probably halt an all-out war in its tracks, and that very same smile has landed her quite a few lovers in the past. There were several times that I caught myself wishing that I was able to be her, or at the very least have her abilities, but those moments would last very briefly and soon flicker out like a candle in the wind. If everybody in our friend group was the same, then we would all become boring and repetitive, wouldn't we?

     Thus, there we were. Seven good friends crammed into a single car with the shared hopes of adventure and making memories, and that's all there was to it.

     Or so it seemed.

     We eventually fell into complete silence once again, waiting out the rest of the ride with the distinct glaze of boredom in the eyes and thoughts of those who were still awake. After all, what else was there to do but wait? I had no idea how much time had already passed since we'd embarked, so I was clueless as to how close we were. I thought about asking Charlie or Gracia about it, but part of me wanted to preserve the calm that had once again settled in the car. Though I loved it when we were all interacting and enjoying each others' company, I had to admit that the stillness was rather nice. I glanced over at Thomas again, and I began to wonder if just going to sleep would end up being the better way to fill the dead time we had. I rested my arm on my side of the car and laid my head down on it, slowly closing my eyes. The low rumble of the car and the comfortable quiet was enough to lull me to sleep fairly quickly.

     "Look! Look! We made it!" Gracia's excitement broke the air like fireworks, and I whipped my head upright, suddenly awake again. If Gracia chose to not finish school, she'd make a great living out of being a human alarm clock with how... effective she was at being noticed. After regaining my composure, I realized that everybody else in the car was suddenly alert now as well, and our eyes all followed Gracia's pointed finger out the windshield of the jeep. In an instant, everybody's eyes were locked on the mountain before us. It was absolutely gigantic, though not steep like it had appeared to be from afar. I also realized that we were no longer on a major road anymore, but rather on a dirt road that looked like it hadn't seen any kind of TLC in years... Probably one of the nature trails?

     Charlie had parked the car already, so all seven of us began to pour out of the jeep, taking the time to stretch our legs and loosen up a bit before deciding to do anything else. I arched my back and stretched my arms high into the air, satisfied with the few pops my joints gave in the response. Leah had gotten out and opened the back door of the jeep so that Jeanette and Sabine could exit, and the two of them let out long, exasperated groans as they began to stretch. Though they were small enough to fit back there, even they had gotten cramped. I chuckled to myself as I watched them. Thomas, still a little stunted by sleep, took the longest to rouse. He didn't even get out of the car immediately, taking a moment to drink in the view of the mountain before even making a move to stand up, but eventually even he was alert and ready to go. Once we made sure we'd grabbed all of our things, we started up the footpath that seemed to be leftover from when others had previously made the climb up the mountain, though there weren't any signs that dictated it was an official trail. Must have been a route others chose to take themselves, then.

     "See that?" I pointed out the trail as we walked along it. "That's been made from plenty of people over the years walking up this mountain. Shouldn't that be evidence alone that the legend isn't real?" I posed my question to Gracia in particular, since she seemed to be the most adamant about the legend having some clout.

     "Manon, the legend isn't that people *can't* climb the mountain... it's that they don't come back down." Gracia hadn't even looked over her shoulder to me when she answered, and for whatever reason, it sent a chill down my spine. In that same moment, I realized our situation: it was such an accepted legend that people don't return... And yet, here our curious asses were, trying to disprove such a thing. A small voice in my head began to wonder if we were just going to become more fodder for the folktale, but I forced it to quiet down and focused my gaze on my boots as I walked, trying to keep myself balanced and avoiding any forest debris in the way. We walked in a bit of a narrow cluster, trying to keep ourselves on the beaten down path as we went about our merry way, each having our own conversations. Gracia, Jeanette, and Sabine were pointing at random sights in the forest and cracking jokes, while Charlie seemed to be having a bit of an in-depth conversation about something he'd read about with Leah and Thomas. I'd voluntarily taken the role of bringing up the rear, as I usually did when we all went out somewhere as a group. The view from the back of the cluster was everybody getting along together, and watching it all happen really did warm my heart. We're all very different, and though we do have cases of personality clashes, we tend to get along and communicate rather well as a whole. Getting to see that happen was one of my favorite things about being with everybody, so being in the back of the group didn't bother me at all. In addition, something about being the one to keep an eye on my friends' backs was comfortable, though the reason why was a mystery to even me. We continued on like this for a while, nobody having a care in the world except for each other's company.

     "How long do you think it'll take to get to the top?" Leah eventually spoke a bit louder over the other conversations, causing us all to go quiet.  
     "Who knows?" Sabine answered, shrugging. "Disproving the legend is exciting and all, but we should enjoy the nature walk we've got going on too. After all," She jokingly gestured to all of us. "When was the last time we all got some decent exercise that was actually fun?" Her comment sent a ripple of laughter through us, and we dissented back into our own conversations soon afterwards.

     I don't know exactly how long we walked, but around the time we paused to take a break, my feet were getting sore. I sat down on one of the large nearby rocks to loosen the laces of my combat boots, hoping to get some kind of relief. Leah was complaining about her feet hurting too, though everybody else seemed to be doing just fine, strangely enough. Perhaps I'd be feeling fine too if I actually wore tennis shoes to do this hike in, but I absolutely hate tennis shoes... I don't even own a pair, to be quite honest.

     My thoughts were interrupted by the shrill, distant sounding voice of Jeanette. "Hey, guys... Check this out!" I looked up, intrigued, and spotted her peering over some thick bushes. Curious, we all stood up and walked over, standing beside her and trying to see what she did. I couldn't help but gawk at what I saw. It was a huge, open hole in the middle of the ground, where the pale sunlight seemed to flood into and illuminate a little bit of the depths inside. It still wasn't bright enough to see the bottom though, even if I squinted.

     "Is that natural?" Sabine inquired, her face contorted in confusion.

     "No idea... But I kinda want to look at it closer." No sooner did Jeanette stop speaking did she push through the bushes, closer to the hole. She always was a bit more ambitious than the rest of us, save for Gracia, that is.  
     "Jeanette, wait!" I called out, concerned for my little blonde friend to be near a potential hazard. I pushed my way through the bushes and followed her, ending up by her side. From the amount of footfalls behind me, I could tell that the rest of our friends had taken our lead and approached the hole cautiously. We all stood together in a clump, peering over the edge, but all we could see was inky blackness even with the sunlight that was shining down.

     "Is it a cave?" Leah asked, tilting her head slightly as she inspected the hole.

     "What if there's a dead body down there?" Thomas spoke with hints of nervousness lacing his tone, gripping a strap from his book bag tighter.

     "No, surely not..." Gracia's words were confident, but her tone had faltered.

      I crouched down beside the hole, squinting to try and see if I could make out anything in the depths of the hole. "It's so dark down there... I can't really see anything..." I placed one of my hands on the ground for leverage, but that lasted for about two seconds. The ground gave way beneath my hand, and I fell forward, the hole seemingly trying to swallow me up. I was so terrified that I couldn't even scream: my body went on autopilot and desperately reached to grab something to save me, but all I was grasping was empty air. Time felt like it was slowing down, and I stared up at the deathly frightened faces of my friends, matching their fear with my own etched clearly on my face as I fell.

     "Manon!" I heard Leah's cry and watched as her hand reached out and grabbed my shirt, but my momentum pulled her off-balance and she began to fall as well. I watched with eyes as wide as a full moon as the ground beneath the rest of our friends gave way too, and we all began to fall into the pitch black depths of the hole. Somewhere during the fall I found my voice again, and I screamed along with my friends as we plummeted deeper into the earth. My heart felt like it was beating so fast that my body went numb, and I clenched my eyes shut, bracing myself for whatever was to happen next.

     The last thing I remembered feeling was the sharp pain in the back of my head.


	2. It's Your Best Friend!

     I could tell I had regained consciousness when my head became plagued with a sharp ache. It wasn't enough to rouse me immediately, for I didn't even bother to open my eyes for quite a while, but I winced from the sudden pain. All I really wanted to do was just lie still and let my body drift back into unconsciousness, but the ache in my head wasn't letting me get what I wanted. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes very slowly, blinking the darkness away from my vision. The first thing that I noticed was all the light around me, causing me to squint from how bright it was. Then, everything else came into focus, and I realized I was staring up at the sky through a hole. For a brief few seconds, I was confused.

_What happened...?_

     My mind was racing through the most recent memories I had, trying to make sense of them all: the car ride, the mountain, the hole...

_The hole... I fell down, and...!_

     A rush of adrenaline filled my body as the memory came flooding back to me, and I bolted upright, my headache briefly increasing from the sudden shift in altitude. After a few moments, it died back down, and I was able to focus again. My eyes darted all around, trying to find something familiar to lock onto, but all I found was darkness under the sheen of sunlight that poured from the top of the hole. It wasn't as dark down here as it seemed from above, but it _was_ a bit dim. I felt as if the light from above was like a spotlight in that moment, where everything outside the light was difficult to discern.

     A small swath of gold caught my eye, and I glanced over to my left to realize that there was a bright gold petal stuck in my hair. Confused, I reached up and ran my hands through my hair, only to find handfuls of petals, leaves, and even some sparse pollen.

_Are these... flowers?_

     I finally glanced down at myself, greeted by the sight of a golden flower bed beneath and around my body. There had to be thousands of them here... I curiously reached out a hand and pressed down on the flower bed, pleasantly surprised with how plush it felt despite my weight. I glanced back up at the hole that loomed above. Judging by the size, I must have fallen a considerable distance, and yet the only injury I could tell having was a headache... Had the flowerbed broken my fall? I studied the flowers in amazement, and I quickly realized that the flowerbed stretched on for quite a ways, covering a surprisingly large portion of the ground. But then, my gaze ran into a dark shape that wasn't touched by the sunlight. I leaned closer to try and get a better look at it, and that was when I noticed it had long, straight, dark hair.

     My body tensed with realization. "Leah...!" I gasped, immediately crawling towards my friend. She was lying on her side, like she'd been thrown there haphazardly. She didn't appear to be conscious, either. I had the instinctive urge to try and shake her awake, but something told me that wasn't the best thing to do. Trying to keep my panic at bay, I began to check her over for signs of bleeding or any other injuries. She didn't seem to be physically injured, but that didn't relieve my worries very much. If she had fallen like I had, then she could have hit her head too... but considering she was on the flowerbed, I reassured myself with the likelihood that the flowers broke her fall too. I had managed to keep my panic low as I tried to think of what to do, and amidst my racing mind, a distinct second realization took root: Leah wasn't the only one who had fallen down with me.

     I sat back and scanned the vicinity for any other signs that my friends were here, though part of me wasn't sure if I'd be relieved or distraught to know that they had fallen with me. Sure enough, I had spotted five other dark figures that were sprawled across the flowerbed, much like I had been. My gaze darted around, and I began to recognize telltale features of my friends: Gracia's dark auburn curls, Charlie's large frame, Jeanette's brightly colored tennis shoes, Sabine's familiar floral top, Thomas and his book bag... I quickly got up and silently inspected each of them for physical injuries, heaving a sigh of relief when they seemed intact, just as Leah had. And yet, though I was somewhat comforted that they weren't injured, my heart was still racing as I continued to shift through disorganized ideas for what to do.

_Breathe, Manon, breathe..._

     I paused to take in a deep breath and slowly let it out, allowing my cluttered thoughts to exit my body along with it.

_Now, what should I do? Try and wake them up? That's all I can really come up with..._

     I headed towards the person closest to me, which happened to be Sabine. She was laying on her side, her long brown hair sprawled out and contrasting amongst the golden flowers beneath her. She looked so oddly peaceful that, had I not known any better, I would have assumed she'd settled down for a nap and not have fallen here. I gathered my composure and gingerly began to nudge her shoulder. "Sabine," I spoke in a volume somewhere between whispering and normal, as if I were trying to rouse her from a nap and nothing more. "Sabine, wake up. Please..." I had started to beg with the unconscious girl, but shortly after, I noticed she began to stir. She slowly opened her eyes, and almost immediately tried to roll over onto her back, though she didn't get very far since she bumped into me during the process. Sabine jumped slightly, then relaxed once she focused on me, albeit confused.

     "Manon...?" Sabine sat up to look me in the eye, but once she was upright, she seemed to realize her environment. She took a confused glance around before facing me again. "Where... Where are we? What happened?" Sabine sounded like a child with how genuinely she asked me.

     "I don't know where we are," I began. "But I can tell you this much: we fell, from up there." I pointed up towards the hole above us, and Sabine followed my gesture until she was gazing into the sky. She was quiet for a few moments, but her panic seemed to set in, because she suddenly looked me in the eyes and grabbed my shoulders. Her face looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

     "We fell? We really fell down that hole?! How do we get out? Where is everybody else?!" Sabine was speaking a mile per minute, though she seemed to answer her last question herself once she took a gander around the vicinity. With a gasp, she let go of my shoulders and took in the sight of them. I reached out and gently rubbed her shoulder, knowing that she responded well to physical touch. It was her "love language", so to speak.

     "I already checked, nobody's hurt as far as I can tell." I assured her. "But we've got to get them conscious again so that we can figure out what to do." She seemed to like my idea, nodding in agreement, so we set about getting the others to come to. It took a little while, going around and trying to rouse everybody in the most peaceful manner possible, especially with Leah and Charlie needing to be soothed after realizing what had happened, but eventually the initial panic melted away and we were all on our feet, circled up amongst the sea of golden flowers.

     "So, we all fell down the hole and into this cave... now what? Are we just stuck?" Gracia asked, picking the remaining petals and leaves out of her hair.

     "Has anybody tried climbing the walls?" Jeanette inquired. I paused to consider that, examining the cave walls. Much to my disappointment, the walls seemed rather smooth: not ideal for climbing. Something else seemed off about them though... like they'd been built to look that way.

     "It doesn't look like we can..." I mentioned, and I noticed Jeanette silently mouth 'dammit'.

     "So we're basically stuck?" Leah sounded so much smaller now that she was scared, poor thing. Pity permeated my heart as she nervously wrung the ends of her shirt, busying her hands.

     "Guys...?" The sudden sound of Thomas's voice caused us all to look over at him. He was staring off into the distance, and I followed his gaze to find what appeared to be a large door frame. "Maybe we could go through there?" He looked back at us for a reaction. We all looked at each other, uncertain. For once, nobody knew what to do or say, which was unusual for our group. After a moment of heavy silence, Gracia shook out her hair and made a quick little sigh.

     "Better to try that than just sit around here with our thumbs up our asses. Let's go." She sounded a bit more hopeful than she probably felt, but it was enough to restore at least some of our group's hope. Gracia was a natural leader with the uncanny ability to motivate people with her words (in both good and bad ways), so I wasn't really surprised when she stepped up to the plate. In fact, I was relieved: if she was so eager to give even a little direction, it meant she hadn't given up hope, which also meant we shouldn't give up hope either. We all came to a silent agreement and began to head over to the door frame as a group.

     As we walked down the unfamiliar path, I felt something brush up against and clasp my left hand, and the same feeling occurred on my right hand. I looked up to find that it had been Gracia on my left and Thomas on my right, and when I looked around at the rest of my friends, I saw that we were all holding each others' hands. Hand holding wasn't uncommon for us, for we did it all the time, ever since we all first became friends two years ago. It was a way we showed our support for each other through a simple touch, and in this moment, it was especially appreciated. I gave Gracia's and Thomas's hands a squeeze, and after they readily returned it, I felt a bit better about going forward.

     Once we finally walked through the door frame, we found ourselves in another room, slightly better lit than the last one. In the center of the room was a lone golden flower, bigger than the other ones we had landed on. There was another doorway in the back of the room, which I could only assume that lead somewhere else. Who had built these rooms, anyway? The presence of architecture began to make me wonder...

     "Howdy!"

     My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, enthusiastic, adorable voice. I glanced around the room in confusion, wondering who could have possibly spoken. My friends were all doing the same, until our eyes fell on the same place at the same time: the golden flower in the middle of the room, which all of a sudden now had a smiling face on it.

_No... the flower didn't talk, right?_

     "I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" I jumped in surprise when the flower opened its mouth and spoke again, and I could feel Gracia's and Thomas's grips on my hands tighten. We were all pretty unsure of how to handle what we just witnessed. The confusion from us all was damn near tangible, and it seemed the sentient flower could sense that. It gained an amused smile, inspecting us all one by one. "Hmm... You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you all must be so confused!"

     "... Underground? This place has a name?" Charlie seemed to echo all of our thoughts, but it seemed that Flowey didn't bother to respond to him.

     "Yep, that's right!" Flowey perked up, then took in the sight of our confused faces yet again before getting a pensive look on his face. "Someone ought to teach you guys how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do." As soon as Flowey stopped speaking, I noticed a sudden glowing red light in the bottom of my peripheral vision. I glanced down and realized in a confused panic that it seemed to be coming from my chest, and the confusion only grew when the light left my body and manifested itself in the shape of a candy red heart right before me.

     "Wh...?!" I couldn't even get the words out to describe my confusion. I looked around to my friends, quickly realizing that they had undergone the same phenomenon. Each of them had a different colored heart before them, presumably that manifested from their chest like mine had: Leah's was cyan, Gracia's was orange, Charlie's was lime green, Thomas's was a cobalt blue, Sabine's was purple, and Jeanette's was yellow. Everybody was staring at their respective heart, mixtures of fear and discomfort in their eyes. We had all let go of each other's hands in utter surprise.

     "What _is_ that?!" Leah asked, her tone escalating slightly at the end, emphasizing her discomfort.

     "See that heart? That is your soul, the very culmination of your being!" Flowey cheerfully explained, and my eyes were drawn back to the red heart floating before me.

_That's what my soul looks like? The very thing that makes me human... looks like that?_

     "Oh my God, it moves!" Sabine's shocked cry came immediately after her purple soul swayed a bit, and I could practically feel all of us tense up at the discovery. "I-I just thought about where I wanted it to go, and it... it moved!" Surprised, I turned to my own red soul and tried it for myself. I thought about my soul moving slightly to right, and it responded almost immediately, floating over right where I wanted it.

     "That's so weird!" Gracia stated, very gently poking her orange soul with her index finger. "It feels pretty solid, too!" It didn't take long for us all to start touching and moving our souls, finding that Sabine and Gracia were both right.

     "Your souls are weak right now, but they can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." Flowey's voice interrupted us, and we all suddenly remembered the sentient flower before us that seemed to know a lot more about what was going on with us than we did. Sensing our confusion, he continued. "What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!" His cheerful little voice and smile was kind of infectious, and I found myself smiling too. I briefly glanced to my friends and noticed that they were all noticeably more at ease now, attentively listening to Flowey. Their peace put me at peace, so I returned my attention back to the flower. "You all want some LOVE, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" Flowey gave us all a big grin and a wink, and though I didn't quite know what he was talking about, I felt some excited anticipation stir within my chest. This little flower was turning out to be pretty informative, all things considered.

     "Down here, LOVE is shared through..." Flowey's voice trailed off a bit as seven little white pods of light suddenly manifested from thin air around him. "Little white... friendliness pellets!" Flowey kept the smile on his face, though the way he was smiling now seemed a little bit... weird. But, then again, one could argue that a talking flower was just weird anyway, so I didn't put much more thought into it.

     "Friendliness pellets?" Jeanette spoke this time, eyeing the pods of light that floated around Flowey.

     "Yeah, friendliness pellets!" The flower never stopped smiling, nodding at her. Then the pods of light began to move towards us, although not very fast. "Get as many as you can by moving your soul to touch them!" Flowey called out. I watched as the lights came floating towards us, and I watched as my friends began to move their souls to meet them. I readied my own soul and moved it forward to greet the pellet of light halfway.

     But as soon as the light touched my soul, a sharp, all-encompassing pain went shooting through my entire body. I cried out in pain and felt my legs grow weak, causing me to fall to my knees. I heard similar painful cries from my friends and watched with fear gripping my body as each of them experienced the same thing I just had. Gracia and Charlie had managed to keep their footing yet were shaking from the effort to keep themselves balanced. Jeanette had gone down onto one knee, but refused to go on both. Sabine, Thomas, and Leah had all lost their balance and collapsed on the ground just like I currently was, holding themselves up with their trembling arms. When I looked back at Flowey, the cheerful smile was gone, and replaced by a wide, sinister grin. My eyes widened with realization.

     "You... You lied to us!" I spoke with anger bubbling up in my voice, despite my weakened state.

     Flowey didn't seem perturbed. "You idiots," His voice had abandoned the sweetness it once had and taken on a distorted quality that was almost demonic. "In this world, it's kill or BE killed. Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?" His words sent shivers down my spine and legitimate fear into my heart. Suddenly, a tight ring of those light pellets formed around all of us, trapping us inside. Flowey's face formed again, this time into malicious anticipation. "Die."

     The circle of pellets began to shrink and move in on us, closer and closer. My friends scrambled away from the outer edges as they honed in close, and in no time we were all huddled up together in a weak, terrified bunch. I could hear Laura and Sabine quietly sob from fear, while Jeanette, Charlie, and Thomas all seemed to be frozen. Flowey's laughter sent repeated shivers down my spine, and my heart began to race as I realized just how much danger we were all in.

     "You BASTARD!" Gracia cried in bitter anger, though her own eyes were welling up with tears. We all felt so helpless, only able to merely watch as the deadly pellets drew near. I trembled in fear, realizing that there was no way out of the shrinking circle. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain.

     Suddenly, there was a popping sound. I opened my eyes, confused, only to find that the ring of light pods had disappeared, as well as my pain. I looked around, realizing that we were all still alive, and seemingly healthy again... had we been healed? Flowey seemed just as confused as we were, and I thought he was about to say something until a sudden orb of fire came rushing in from out of nowhere and utterly sucker punched Flowey. It hit him so hard that it uprooted the evil flower, sending him flying somewhere down the corridor with a screech of pain.

     We tore our gaze from Flowey's sudden departure back to where we heard footsteps. Approaching us was what seemed like a tall, female, bipedal goat creature, though it seemed much more humanoid than like a goat we were familiar with.

     "What a miserable creature, torturing poor, innocent youth..." She spoke so articulately, and her glare was directed down the corridor where Flowey had been sent flying. She turned her eyes to us, and I felt myself as well as my friends tense up and lean away from her presence. Did she intend to hurt us too? 

     "Ah, do not worry, my children. I will not harm you." She seemed to sense our fear and spoke in a gentle tone. Charlie and Sabine seemed to let themselves ease up a bit, though as a whole, we were all still skeptical. "My name is Toriel, and I am the caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down." She paused to take in the sight of each of us, pensive. "You are the first humans to come here in a long time." Despite being in the presence of another monster, I didn't feel as on-guard as I had previously. I could feel the tense vibe in the air among my friends, and I could feel a grip on my left shoulder: Sabine, I could tell. She was the only one who ever held onto people's shoulders when she was scared.

     "Come! I will guide you through the catacombs." The tall monster gestured through the door frame on the opposite side of the room. "This way." Without another word, she exited the room. After taking a moment to watch her walk away, we all stood up and glanced at each other, uncertain.

     "Should we go?" Leah was the first to break the silence, her hazel eyes now trained onto where Toriel had exited the room.

     "What if she wants to hurt us, like Flowey had?" Charlie spoke next, his arms crossed in thought. He seemed to have said everything that we were all secretly thinking, and there was a pause following his question. 

     Finally, after the silence became unbearable, I gathered my thoughts together. "I think we should go with her." I could feel everybody's gaze on me after I spoke, quizzical and unsure. "I mean, she did save us and heal our souls," I began to explain. "If she did want to cause us harm, she would have joined the flower when she had the chance instead of protecting us." I let my words sink in, watching as they mulled over my reasoning. Encouraged by the lack of opposition, I continued. "Besides, we have no idea where we are. There could be lots of other threats ready for us, just like Flowey was... But if we're with her, we at least have somewhere to start. She could even help us get back above ground."

     There wasn't any readable response at first, for my words were only met with silence, but my faith in my reasoning never waned. 

     "Manon does have a point, guys." Jeanette looked me in the eyes, her confidence in what I'd said evident by the look she was giving me. "This Toriel might be the best chance we've got at getting through this place." After she spoke, I scanned the faces of everybody else, reading for any sort of opinion one way or another. There wasn't really much of an opinion being formed as a whole, so my eyes eventually found the pale blue ones of Gracia, who seemed lost in thought. Though I did ask the group as a whole, it was kind of undisputed that Gracia's word was often revered as the best course of action. After all, she was a natural leader among us.

     Eventually, Gracia sighed. "I say we do it. We'll at least have some idea of what to do if we stay with Toriel." There was a soft murmur of agreement, and expressions of resolve had settled on all of our faces.

     Silently regaining a grip of each others' hands, we followed Toriel out of the room.


	3. The Ruins

     The first thing I noticed about the next room was how spacious it was. In truth, it reminded me of the outside of a castle, with towering stone walls and bright red foliage gathered in a neat pile in the empty space between the twin slanted staircases. To be honest, I thought they were rose petals at first, making the place seem fancier. Either way, it was a refreshing pop of color against the monochrome architecture. The staircases lead up to what appeared to be the entrance to some sort of place, but exactly what, I couldn't tell. Ivy tendrils clung to the wall around the next doorway, adding another rustic hint of beauty. 

     As we got closer, the shadow of the large entryway seemed to loom over us higher and higher. Normally, such a sight would be intimidating, but for whatever reason, I wasn't scared at all. In fact, the sight of it all just filled me with determination to get us all to the surface again, so that we could resume our lives. I took a moment to take it all in, etching the sight and feeling of the place into my soul. I couldn't place why, but I felt like it would be important to remember this moment. 

     "Wow..." Leah whispered as we approached the stairs. I couldn't help but nod in agreement.

     Toriel was waiting for us by the doorway, smiling at us kindly as we filed up the stairs, not letting go of each other's hands all the while. I briefly squeezed Gracia's and Thomas's hands in tacit reassurance, which they returned with differing pressures.It seemed to keep us connected and comforted, or maybe that was just how it affected me personally... if I were on my own, I would surely be at least a little frightened. 

     Upon entry to the next room, we were meet with Toriel standing next to six switches that seemed to be arranged in a pattern in the floor. There was a narrow yellow switch upon the wall on the far side as well, right next to a sealed door.

     "Welcome to your new home, innocent ones." She began. I took a look around, unsure if she meant this underground world in general or this particular... should I even call it a building? The fact she'd called this place our "new home" had sent a wave of apprehension through me as well. Did she think we were staying down here? I wondered if I should speak up and say something, but I couldn't bring myself to interrupt her as she spoke. "Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins." The tall monster began to walk on the switches in the floor, stepping deliberately on four specific ones and then flipping the switch. Suddenly, the sealed door threw itself open. Sabine had jumped at the loud echo of the opening door, and Charlie gently squeezed her hand that was in one of his. 

     "The Ruins are full of puzzles," Toriel went on to explain. "Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourselves to the sight of them." She sounded a bit like a tour guide with how she spoke so articulately, but a part of me felt as if that was just part of her speech patterns. 

     "We don't have to do what you just did, do we?" Thomas inquired, eyeing the switches fixed to the ground a bit critically. 

     Toriel laughed, waving her paw dismissively to the puzzle. "No, my child. I have already done that one for you." She gestured towards the door, which had been standing open for a few minutes. "Come, I'll let you all try the next one." She turned and walked through the door, and the seven of us followed suit. 

     The next room was much longer than the other one, somewhat narrowly stretching to the east as small streams ran perpendicular to the layout, with small yet sturdy bridges over each one. Various ivy vines climbed the aged walls, and combined with the gentle sound of the streams, gave a more lively look to the Ruins than the previous rooms had. 

     "There's actually fresh running water down here?" Charlie wondered aloud, eyeing the streams with curiosity. 

     Toriel chuckled, amused at his bewildered face. "Of course there's water here! How else would the monsters down here survive?" She gestured down the corridor. "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches." That sounded doable, so I nodded in understanding. "Do not worry, I have labelled the ones you need to flip." With that, Toriel went on her merry way down the hall, crossing one of the streams and stopping just before the next one, looking towards us expectantly. We all looked to each other, realizing that we now had an actual task, and let go of each others' hands. 

     "Looks like we got switches to flip..." Gracia took the first step and trekked over the first stream's bridge. We followed her, and once I got over the bridge, a large splash of yellow caught my peripheral vision. I turned towards the left wall and saw a switch that was surrounded by yellow arrows, making it blatantly obvious which one we were supposed to go for. I couldn't help but feel amused by it, giggling to myself as I went forward and flipped the switch. It didn't make a sound, though Toriel seemed pleased with me. She went across the other stream and waited at the next entrance, which was blocked off by spikes. Sure enough, on that side of the stream was another switch very obviously pointed out by the yellow arrows drawn upon the wall. 

     Leah's telltale laugh caught my attention. "Hang on guys, I'm not really sure if this is it, but I'm gonna take the chance." She spoke between her giggles, sarcasm heavy in her tone, flipping the switch. The spikes blocking the way dropped deep into the floor, making it safe to walk over. 

     Toriel looked very pleased with us, donning a huge grin on her face. "Splendid! I am proud of you, little ones. Let us move to the next room." She headed on into the next room without us. I looked to my friends, reading the same amused expression of their faces. 

     "Did she think we weren't going to figure it out?" Sabine asked to nobody in particular, to which I shrugged with a smile. 

     "Either way, I guess it's not a bad thing for her to be so... helpful." I mentioned, lightly laughing. We made our way into the next room, which was much smaller than the last. Toriel was smiling sweetly at us while standing next to what appeared to be a training dummy.

     "Hello, my children... it's time to educate you further. As humans living in the Underground, monsters may attack you... as I'm sure you're aware of by now." Toriel's voice sounded rather sad. It wasn't hard to deduce that she was referring to Flowey, and there was heavy understanding in the air among us. Not only that, but I could tell my friends had all picked up on her insistence that we were staying in the Underground permanently... did none of us have the courage to correct her? It didn't seem so, especially since she was being so kind to us as it was.

     "Wait... this place is called the Underground?" Charlie interrupted her, as well as the tension. 

     Toriel nodded. "The monster world as a whole is the Underground, yes. However, this particular area is the Ruins, but I'm sure you knew that already." She continued. "You will need to be prepared for the prospect of conflict; however, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation... stall for time, and I will come to resolve the conflict." Toriel then gestured towards the training dummy. "Practice talking to the dummy."

     We turned to the cotton structure, and before we could really put thought into it, our souls suddenly manifested before us without much warning. The dummy's cotton structure was very minimalist, barely having any sort of shape to its body as well as one lonely button for an eye. 

     "Aw..." I cooed. "He's kinda cute."  

     "So... do we talk to the dummy all together, or...?" Jeanette turned to Toriel with the question, who took a moment to think. 

     "How about all of you try talking to the dummy one by one?" She was really serious about us using conversation as our battle tactic? I felt a rather unsure about her methods, but I wasn't going to actively argue with her. After all, we were just a bunch of powerless humans thrust into a world where monsters with dangerous magic apparently existed... 

     "Human with the red soul, what is your name?" My thoughts were interrupted by Toriel's voice, and I realized she was referring to me. I suddenly felt shy being singled out, even in a kind way like this, so I briefly averted my gaze to my candy red soul that floated before me to regain my composure. Once I sorted myself out, I turned to look Toriel in the eyes.

     "Manon," I replied after taking a breath. "My name is Manon." 

     "Ah, I see!" Toriel seemed happy to know my name. "How about you try talking to the dummy first?" My blue gaze met her amber one, which was brimming with kindness, and then I nodded. There were so many questions about the Underground that swirled around my mind, but I had to push them aside. For now, I had a dummy to talk to. I approached the cotton dummy without much of a plan, figuring I'd improvise. 

     "Um... seen any good movies lately?" I asked, shrugging at my own lame question. As expected, the dummy didn't respond, but it didn't seem like much for conversation anyways. I looked over my shoulder to Toriel, who seemed happy with me. 

     "Nicely done, Manon." Toriel encouraged. Somehow, her praise made me feel proud of myself, as if she were my mother. Now that I thought of it, Toriel _was_ a very maternal type, though whether that had something to do with her monster species or not wasn't clear to me. I went to stand beside Toriel so I'd be out of the way and let the others have a turn with the dummy, and she smiled down at me before returning her attention to my friends. 

     "Does anybody want to go next?" Toriel asked. 

     "Oh, what the heck? I'll go." Gracia shrugged with a little light laughter as she stepped up to the dummy, her bright orange soul floating with her as she did so.

     "Splendid!" Toriel praised. "Ah, what is your name, my child?"

     "I'm Gracia, and I'm kinda the leader of our group." Gracia gestured to herself with her thumb, her chest puffed up with some of her natural pride. Toriel seemed amused, nodding for Gracia to go ahead. I watched as my friend sauntered up to the dummy very casually, like she had been friends with the dummy for ages. "What's up, fam? You gucci?" Gracia always did have a penchant for using all sorts of slang, whether it was current or not, but she used it with such pride that it sounded just right coming from her. Yet again, the dummy didn't seem like much for talking. Gracia lazily sent a peace sign with her hand and spun on her heel away from the dummy, laughing at herself as she did so. As brave and organized as she was, Gracia was also goofy as hell when she wanted to be. 

     Toriel seemed to find her amusing, at the very least. The goat monster stifled a laugh before nodding in approval to Gracia as my friend approached to stand beside me. "Very good, my child." She looked out at the others. "Who is next?"

     "I can go next!" Sabine piped up, her purple hued soul bouncing slightly as she approached.

     "I like your enthusiasm, little one," Toriel praised. "What would your name be?"

     "My name's Sabine!" My small friend's optimism was rather contagious, for I caught myself smiling as she introduced herself. Sabine was just one of those people who almost always had a smile on her face, no matter what situation she was given. I envied her, in that regard. Sabine quickly approached the dummy and waved, as if it were sentient. "Hi! I'm Sabine, and I just wanted to say you're really cute! That button eye is just your color." She spoke as if she were making a new friend, which wasn't difficult for Sabine to do anyways. Her bubbly attitude was damn near constant, even when she had good reasons to be anything but pleasant. It was like positivity was what she thrived on, in a way. 

     Toriel seemed very pleased with Sabine's technique. "Wonderful! It is no wonder that you have so many friends, Sabine." She beamed down at my friend as she came to stand with me and Gracia, though she shrugged humbly. 

     "I'll go ahead and have my turn, then." Charlie volunteered, gently holding his lime green soul in one of his hands. 

     "Please do so, um... What is your name?" 

     "Oh, I'm Charlie." The tall boy smiled sweetly at Toriel. Once he got to the dummy, Charlie released his soul, put his hands in his pants pockets, and mustered up a friendly smile. "Hey! How are you? Got anything on your mind?" There he went again, always so concerned with the well-being of others rather than himself. Of all the people in my life, I don't think I've ever met anyone as trusting or as kind as Charlie. He was like a tall, somewhat heavier set teddy bear: that boy had so much love in his heart for just about everybody he encountered. Hell, this dummy wasn't even sentient, yet he was still seeing if it just needed a friend. There definitely needed to be more people like Charlie in the world.

     "How touching," Toriel began "I can see you are very kind, Charlie." 

     Her words made Gracia chuckle a bit. "We've been telling him that since day one," She crossed her arms and gave Charlie a playful look as he came to stand with us. "Yet he never does just take the compliment." 

     "I'm just doing what any decent person would do, really." Charlie returned Gracia's look and smiled back at us. I couldn't help but smile too. 

     "Just between you and me, are there any good parties down here?" A sudden voice caused us all to turn, seeing Jeanette had already begun talking to the dummy without introducing herself. Typical of her, really: Jeanette was much more of a" _leap before you look"_ type of person, which meant she didn't always make the best decisions... but then again, I couldn't really judge her for making poor choices: I felt myself cringe at the memory of myself leaning over to see into the hole before we fell through it. 

     Toriel had seemed a little surprised at Jeanette's eagerness, but was pleased by it nonetheless. "Ah, good job! You are...?" 

     Jeanette came up to Toriel and reached to give her a happy little greeting pat on Toriel's sleeve. "Name's Jeanette. May not act like it, but I'm the oldest of us all." She spoke with a bit of a smirk, her pale yellow soul seeming to match the blonde of her hair with it being so close to her.

     "Not by a whole lot, rude," Gracia's playfully mean tone caused Jeanette to give a cheeky grin back at her. "We're all born in the same year, so you're only like, what? A few months older than the next oldest?" 

     Toriel seemed amused with the benign spat, though her amber gaze rested on Thomas and Leah. "Looks like you two are the only ones left. What are your names?" She spoke gently, like a mother would to frightened children.

     Leah brushed some of her hair back off her shoulder before answering. "Leah." She spoke bluntly as ever, which always baffled me since she was the most prone to cry at anything out of everybody in our friend group. Sure, Leah could give you a blunt answer to no matter what you had to say, but show her a picture of a cute baby and she would tear up. Thin tough shell on the outside, gooey on the inside: that was Leah. 

     Thomas put on a shy smile, waving a little to Toriel. "I'm Thomas." Though he and I are usually regarded as the quietest of our friends, Thomas actually has a lot to say, if you take the time to listen to him. He whispers a lot of verbal gold under his breath at any given time, and he's funny without meaning to be. Truly, Thomas was a very unique individual with a knack for listening and cheering people up. If angels are real, I bet my life that they're all exactly like Thomas. 

     Toriel nodded as they introduced themselves, and she motioned one paw to the dummy. "Who is going first, then?" Leah looked to Thomas, giving him a look that obviously said she did not want to go next. I couldn't really figure out why she was so opposed to speaking to a dummy, but I figured it had something to do with her just not finding it interesting. At the very least, it seemed like a reason Leah would give for it. 

     Eventually, Thomas gave in and stepped forward towards the dummy, his cobalt blue soul hovering very close to him, like it sought shelter from its own vessel. After inspecting it for a moment, Thomas leaned close to the dummy and donned a bit of a suggestive look. "On a scale from 1-10, you're a nine." He smirked. "And I'm the one that you need." He kept himself together for about three seconds, then he laughed, the cheesiness of his pick-up line cracking himself up. Thomas had an unusually strong penchant for cheesy pick-up lines that he was never serious about when he used them. He found the most benign forms of comedy hilarious, from cheesy pick-up lines to bad puns. Well, I loved puns too, but he was far better at coming up with them than me.

     Genuine laughter bubbled up from Toriel, and she gently pinched Thomas's cheek when he got close enough. "You are so adorable, Thomas." 

     Now, Leah was the only one who remained. With a slight sigh, she walked up to the dummy, her aqua colored soul following closely by her side. She looked over at us for a brief moment, then back at the training dummy. "Y'know, I waited to be last so that I'd hopefully have something decent to say, but I tell you what... I got nothing. Sorry pal." She spoke to the cotton structure exactly like she'd speak to one of us, keeping it real like she always did. Leah was admirable in that regard... to some degree, at least.

     Either way, Toriel seemed very pleased with all of us. She looked at us all and beamed, just like a proud mother would. "Ah, very good! You are all very good. Let us move on, shall we?" Toriel went through the next entrance without another word, and we began to follow behind, like ducklings without much of a mind for taking another path. 

     "All we've done is talk to a dummy and she's already so proud of us," Jeanette spoke softly, thinking aloud. "Talk about easy to please, yeah?" Though her words were funny, I did wonder why Toriel seemed so intent on having us practice stalling for time instead of showing us actual ways to defend ourselves. I just filed it away with the rest of the questions I had about the Underground that probably weren't going to get answered soon and followed my friends -- and Toriel -- out of the room, leaving the dummy behind.


	4. Unnecessary Tension

     "There is another puzzle in this room..." Toriel began as we entered the next room. "I wonder if you can solve it?" She seemed to be wondering aloud more than directly asking us with that last part, and she began to walk down the corridor with all seven of us in tow. I couldn't help but look around the room, scanning for any sign of a puzzle or anything out of the ordinary. This room was very similar to the previous three, with the same stone architecture and ivy clad walls. The only thing that was of note was the strange curvy design on the floor, but previous rooms had ones like it, so I wrote it off as nothing unusual.

     "I don't see a puzzle here..." Gracia searched the room with her eyes, confused. "Is this one of those trick questions where you make them think that something is wrong in the room, but there actually isn't?" She wrinkled her nose in uncertainty, the slight accusation in her tone unmistakable. She hated surprises and tricks, and she wasn't very puzzle oriented either. To be honest, I was a little amazed she was going along with the "puzzles are necessary" concept up to this point.

     Toriel merely smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling with slight mischief.

     "Is it a switch puzzle like the last two?" Charlie asked, to which Toriel shook her head.

     "It's further down this way, my children." She gestured with her paw to follow her towards a narrow hallway.

     We began to follow her in a cluster, the anticipation in the air tangible between us. I stuck to the back of the group, taking comfort in watching my friends' backs and the partial solitude, just as I had before we fell down the hole. Optimism and pessimism were at war in the back of my mind, bickering about whether or not we'd actually go back to the way things were. Though, if I was being honest with myself, in this moment I was just happy to even be alive and relatively healthy alongside my friends. Things could have ended up a lot worse than they turned out to be... at least, that's what I kept telling myself. With a quick breath, I pulled myself out of my thoughts and kept walking.

     Suddenly, something jumped in my path. I quickly stepped back, startled, staring at the creature before me. It looked a lot like a frog, but much bigger, about the size of a small dog. It looked like there was something moving under its belly, too... Were those _eyes_? I honestly couldn't tell, and it frightened me a bit to not know what it was.

     Two flashes of red emitted from my chest before my soul manifested, floating between me and the monster.

_Oh shit,_ I realized. _I'm in a fight!_

     I didn't dare look away from the monster, unsure if it would attack when I wasn't looking, but my mind was reeling for what to do. Should I stand still? Do I run away? I didn't need to attack it, did I? I hoped this monster couldn't tell how much I was grasping at straws for my next course of action. Then, I suddenly remembered Toriel's lesson with the dummy: stall for time. She and the others would soon notice I'm not keeping up with them, right?

     I regained my composure and tried to relax my beating pulse. What conversation topics could I use? Did this monster even understand English? Toriel had, so maybe this one did too?

     "Um..." I quickly wracked my brains for something to say. "You look lovely today...?" I sounded unsure, figuring that being nice was the best way to go. I certainly wasn't the best at conversing with new people, especially not potential threats, but I tried. The frog monster stared a few moments, but seemed to take on a positive facial expression... if that was its actual face. I felt myself relax.

     Seemingly out of nowhere, Toriel showed up, glaring at the frog monster as she came to my side. She said nothing, holding an intense gaze as she placed her paw on my shoulder. Despite her soft, furry outward appearance, that tall stature coupled with the daggers she was glaring made Toriel much scarier than I imagined she could be. The frog monster caught her gaze and immediately seemed to shrink, realizing her authority. If this monster had a tail, it would surely be between the poor thing's legs. It guiltily slunk away into the shadows.

     "Are you okay, my child?" Toriel's soft voice sounded rather concerned.

     "Y-Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine." I smoothed my sweater and smiled up at her before noticing that my friends were all standing nearby at the end of the corridor, watching us with wide eyes. 

     Toriel smiled at me once she realized I was alright, then she walked me back to the others with one paw on my shoulder. "That, my children, was called a Froggit." The motherly monster explained. The way she spoke made her sound like she had prepared that statement ahead of time, for whatever reason. "They, along with a few other types of monsters in the Underground, cannot speak your language. However, they are very perceptive and can recognize the intent behind your words even if they cannot understand the actual words." She removed her paw from my shoulder and smiled at me, pride swimming behind her eyes. "I am very proud of you for remembering the exercise with the dummy, my child." 

     I felt a little bit awkward being singled out, so I shrugged with a half-smile to show I was acknowledging her statement. "Well, it probably worked so well because you're a great teacher, Toriel." She seemed to brighten at my words, standing up a little straighter and smiling a little wider. 

     Satisfied, Toriel went forth to the end of the corridor, all of us following in observant silence. Eventually, she stopped just before a body of water that was stretched before us. I peered around her to see if there was a way across, but to my surprise, the bridge that lay before us was absolutely covered in steel spikes. Tall spikes stuck up from the ground, standing menacingly as if they were all daring us to try and cross. 

     "What the heck is this? Are we supposed to walk on that?" Leah's voice arose from the silence, asking what was on all of our minds. 

     "This is the puzzle, but..." Toriel trailed off, then offered out one of her paws. "Here, take my paw for a moment. You all should hold hands with each other for this as well." 

     Though I hadn't expected it to be him, Charlie was the first to move. He took Toriel's paw with one of his own hands before reaching to Leah with his other. Charlie taking her paw was both surprising, yet not really. Though Charlie was very kind and a little naive as a result, he had a good judgement of character. Toriel had been nothing but kind to us, yet I could tell that the aftermath of Flowey's attack had caused us all to be wary of Toriel, even if we weren't actively trying to be.  

     Charlie's decision to trust Toriel was infectious, because the rest of us began to hold hands as we were instructed. I had taken Sabine's hand in my left and Jeanette's on my right, and soon everybody was connected. Once we were all linked together, Toriel began to walk along the spikes. Amazingly, the spikes yielded to her feet, smoothly sinking into the bridge. However, she was making very decisive steps, obviously going in a pattern... not every spike must be rigged that way, then. 

     We all followed her lead, cautiously stepping after her to minimize the chance of messing up. Sabine wasn't taking the risk factor very well, whining a little bit with each step she had to take, but she persevered until we reached the end of the bridge. In a way, I was proud of her. 

     After we all were safely off the spiked bridge, Toriel let go of Charlie's hand, which set off a chain reaction for the rest of us as we let go of each other. Toriel turned to us with a bit of a doting smile on her face. "Puzzles seem a bit too dangerous for now," She remarked, then continued through the doorway into the next room. I cast an unsure glance to Charlie, who merely shrugged back at me. How odd that she was encouraging us to complete puzzles, yet denied us the opportunity to try one that required actual work to figure out...

      _Oh well._

    We followed Toriel into the next room, only to find her waiting for us. "You have done excellently thus far, my children," She began, a pleased and proud expression on her face. Something about her praise made me feel good about myself, as if she were my actual mother as opposed to a motherly stranger, for the most part. I noticed that pleasure faded from her expression somewhat as she continued. "However... I have a difficult request to ask of you. I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourselves." She took a moment to inspect our faces, which were painted with confusion and apprehension, and smiled apologetically. "Forgive me for this." We all turned and looked at each other for answers that we simply did not have. What was Toriel trying to do?

     "What do you m--" Thomas had begun to ask a question, but when we all turned back around, Toriel was gone. A slight shiver went down my spine.

     "I knew it," Gracia spoke first, her tone edged with annoyance. "I knew she was up to something!" She crossed her arms while biting her lip, as if she were mentally kicking herself for not seeing something earlier. 

     "We might as well do what she wants us to do, guys." Surprisingly, Thomas had been the one to speak up, breaking his silence since Toriel had shown up. "She's been good to us so far, so I think we need to go with it." He looked so sure in what he was saying that I felt proud of him, in a way, that he'd actually said what he was thinking. The rest of us looked at each other and came to a silent agreement, then we began to walk down the hall towards the end of the room, like we'd been told to do. I could tell that we were all tense as we progressed, wondering what Toriel's plan was, but our reluctant and somewhat blind faith kept us moving. The walk to the end of the room hadn't been excruciating by any means, but we were quickly approaching the end without a hitch. Something about this felt odd...

     "Is... Is that a pillar?" Jeanette's voice made me look up, and sure enough, there was a lone white pillar at the very end of the hallway. The confusion between my friends and I was almost completely tangible. I almost laughed, in all honesty, just because of how odd and seemingly out of place it was. 

     "Yeah, it totally is." I responded, then wrote it off as small humor as we kept going. However, just as we passed by it, Toriel suddenly stepped out from behind the pillar, smiling proudly at all of us. 

     "Greetings, my children. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time." She seemed so pleased with herself and her hiding place, it was actually rather adorable. Light laughter rippled through our group, obviously amused with her, and Toriel quickly went back into her more serious mode. "Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise... to test your independence. I must attend to some business and leave you alone for a while." She was speaking much more gently now, as if we were all much younger children rather than the eighteen and nineteen year olds that we actually were. "Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourselves."

     "But, what if we need you?" Leah inquired. 

     Toriel seemed to ponder this question for a moment, then perked up. "I have an idea," She began. "I will give you all my phone number, since I assume you all have your own cell phones." She gestured to the phone sticking out of Leah's pants pocket, and as if one cue, we all dug into our own pockets and pulled out our phones to show them to Toriel. She smiled and nodded as we confirmed her assumptions, then took our phones one by one and put her contact information in them. "If you have a need for anything, just call... be good, alright?" 

     "We'll be just fine." Gracia reassured, giving Toriel a big smile as the motherly monster exited the room.

     As soon as Toriel was gone, I turned to my friends. "Are we really going to stay?" I inquired. Despite Toriel's command for us to stay put, personally, I felt the itch to go explore. Not only that, but there was simply nothing to do here except waiting for her to come back. 

     Jeanette and Gracia sent me a mischievous look at told me they felt the same as I did, which pleased me to no end. Leah seemed like she was on the same page as well.

     "Wait," Sabine spoke up. "Toriel told us to stay put. Don't you think we should listen?" Her light eyes seemed uncertain at the aspect of leaving the room. 

     "Yeah... She does seem to know what's best for us." Thomas added, rolling a string that was hanging off his book bag between his fingers -- a nervous tic of his.

     I opened my mouth to say something, but Charlie beat me to it. 

     "Guys, think about it." He began. "If we stay here, we'll just be more behind in trying to get back home." Charlie shrugged and gestures towards the doorway that lead to regions unknown. "So I say we venture out. We can't stay down here forever, and we should probably find Toriel and tell her that while we're at it."

     "Why can't we just call her and say so?" Thomas asked, pulling out his cell phone again. 

     "Don't you think something like that should be said in person?" Charlie gently countered. "After all, since she is doing all of these things for us, she probably thinks we're gonna stay or something similar to that." He slipped his hands into his jacket pockets, a softer look on his face than normal. "And, really, I just wanna get back up to the surface." He seemed rather vulnerable in this position, and I patted his shoulder reassuringly. Charlie was such a kind soul that he was a bit more sensitive than the rest of us, and that was okay. There wasn't any shame in showing emotions.

     His plan made sense, all things considered. Sabine and Thomas looked to each other before looking back to Charlie, both seeming to accept his idea after listening to him.

     "Well, that's settled," Gracia spoke up and grinned at us. "Shall we?" Without so much as a breath of opposition, all seven of us left the room together. The next room was the same as the others, albeit more neat piles of red leaves dispersed around the space, but otherwise the same. Close to the doorway, I noticed there to be a lone monster, sitting by itself. It looked extremely similar to the monster that jumped in my way earlier... what had Toriel called it? Froggit? It didn't seem aggressive, and if anything, it was just observing us from a safe distance. I nodded in acknowledgement to the monster, and it slowly did the same. The sense of understanding was comforting.

     We walked for some time, making our way from room to room and completing different puzzles with varying levels of success. Gracia would try and solve them without taking the time to make a plan, which usually followed with Leah figuring it out and patiently walking a struggling Gracia through the solution. Leah's analytical mind was extremely helpful when it came to all these puzzles, and it made me proud of her, in a way. She's a lot smarter than most people give her credit for.

     Eventually, we made it to a split room with a bridge connecting the two halves, but we stopped dead in our tracks upon realizing that there was something blocking the entire bridge. A large, white mass was lying there on top of the bridge, as if it had nothing else better to do. If I listened closely enough, I could just barely make out a faint sound coming from the mass... 

     "Zzzzzz..." It seemed to be saying, despite it's eyes being wide open. 

     "Is... is it just saying 'z' over and over again?" Thomas whispered, to which I nodded in confusion. Something about this... thing on the bridge intrigued me, and without much thought, I began to approach. Upon closer inspection, the mass turned out to be a ghost, and unless they moved, then there was no way we could progress. Upon that realization, two red flashes emitted from my chest and my soul manifested. Startled that my soul had appeared so suddenly, I jumped back a little bit, and after looking to my friends, I realized that their souls were out as well. We all looked back to the ghost in front of us, who was no longer lying down. They stood upright, staring at us with wide eyes, looking as if they weren't sure what we were going to do. Remembering Toriel's lesson and seeing that the ghost appeared to be more scared of us than we were of them, I decided to give a patient smile and a small wave towards the ghost. 

     "Heh..." The ghost responded, not seeming to be one for conversation. All of a sudden, tears streamed out of the ghost's eyes, floating steadily towards my soul. I dodged just about every one of them, save for the last one. The impact on my soul stung a little, but nothing compared to how bad Flowey's attack had been. 

     "Let me try something," I heard Sabine's voice behind me and stepped aside, letting her and her mauve soul come through. She gave the ghost a great big smile and approached them as if they were an old friend. "Hi! I'm Sabine, what's your name?" She asked with just as much enthusiasm as a bright eyed and bushy tailed squirrel, which was normal for her. 

     The ghost stared back at her for a moment or two before responding. "Napstablook..." They said quietly. 

     "Napstablook? That's a unique name, I like it!" Sabine encouraged. Napstablook seemed to look a bit better from her encouragement, their mood improved by her pure optimism. Sabine sure did have a way with influencing people with her emotions. She seemed prepped and ready for another magic attack to come her way, but it never did. Had she already charmed the ghost into not attacking?

     "Let me show you something..." Napstablook began, and the tears came out of their eyes again, but this time they went upwards towards the top of their head. They began to combine, forming something... eventually, the tears stopped, and a proper top hat was resting on top of Napstablook's head. It was probably the most adorable thing I had ever seen. "I call it Dapper Blook... Do you like it...?" Napstablook asked, obviously very shy and unsure of themselves. 

     Sabine's eyes lit up. "Of course I like it! That's so cool you can do that." Sabine's genuine compliment seemed to make the ghost monster blush a bit. Soon, our souls returned to our bodies, floating back into our chests, signalling the end of the fight.

     Napstablook looked to all of us, slowly blinking as they took in the sight. "I usually come to the Ruins because there's nobody around..." Then their eyes locked onto Sabine. "But today I met somebody nice... A lot of nice people, actually..." Then they seemed embarrassed. "Oh, I'm rambling again... I'll get out of your way." Without another word, Napstablook faded away, presumably teleporting somewhere else. 

     Sabine turned to us and grinned. "That was nice, we made a new friend." She sounded a bit like a child again, but then again, her entire optimistic demeanor was rather childlike to begin with. Had she not been so inclined to be kind, we may not have made it past, or made Napstablook happier. Something about the accomplishment made me feel good about us as a group. 

     Charlie came up and patted her on the shoulder. "That was cool of you to do, Sabine. Toriel would be proud." Sabine smiled and shrugged, though it was clear that she took the compliment as we headed for the next room.


	5. You're Home

    _Ring, ring..._

     I stopped mid-stride at the sound of a phone ringing, which seemed to be coming from my pocket. I stared down at it in confusion and slowly reaching for my pocket. How did I even get service all the way down here?

     "Who the hell is calling you right now, Manon?" Gracia asked, equally sarcastic and curious. I could feel the gazes of my other friends fixed on me as I checked the caller ID on the screen. I blinked, surprised at the name I saw.

     "... Toriel?" I wondered aloud, and I noticed my friends begin to look at each other, worry tinging their faces. I tapped the screen to answer the call and pressed the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

     "Hello, this is Toriel!" Her cheerful voice greeted me back from the other end. "For no particular reason, which do you and your friends prefer? Cinnamon, or butterscotch?" Her question was so random that I wasn't even sure how to respond at first.

     "Um..." Looking to my friends, who stared back at me questioningly, I wasn't really sure of how to answer for them. "Will you give me a moment to ask?" I didn't wait for her response and drew the phone away from my ear to speak with my friends. "She's asking if we prefer cinnamon or butterscotch...?"

     "Is she making something?" Charlie inquired. I shrugged. Everybody seemed to take a moment to think, then Charlie broke the silence. "I like butterscotch better, personally."

     "Me too." Leah echoed Charlie's choice, while Gracia gave a thumbs up in agreement.

     "Really? I think cinnamon is the way to go." Sabine piped in, to which Jeanette and Thomas enthusiastically nodded.

     "Cinnamon kills the other flavors, though." Gracia pointed out, shrugging her shoulders.

     "Butterscotch doesn't have much of a taste to begin with." Jeanette countered, amused by the friendly debate.

     Gracia sighed. "So we're split evenly, it seems..." Then she turned to me. "You'll have to be the tie breaker then, Manon." She and the others all looked to me expectantly, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure all of a sudden. I fidgeted a little bit, my gaze flickering from the cinnamon side to the butterscotch side and back again.

     "But... But I like both?" I answered, my insecurity about answering leaking into my tone. Gracia playfully threw her arms up into the air in mock disbelief, the smile on her face giving herself away. A light chuckle fluttered through the group, which was rather uplifting, considering our situation. "I'll... I'll tell her we like cinnamon." I finally settled on a choice, tuning out the victorious whispers of the cinnamon advocates and the defeated groans of the butterscotch fans as I pressed the phone to my ear again. "Cinnamon is just fine with us." I answered.

     "Ah, I see. Thank you very much." Toriel responded, and from the sounds of it, she seemed to be satisfied. But right before I went to hang up, she spoke again. "Um... you all do not dislike butterscotch, do you?" She seemed a bit reluctant to ask, which I found curious. "I know what your preference is, but..." She trailed off.

     "Really, either one works just as well." I chose to compromise on their behalf. They could thank me later. I caught their curious glances, amused at my executive decision. However, just as my gaze rested on Thomas's face, I remembered something important. "Oh, um, Toriel? If your plan is food related... you should know that Thomas is allergic to eggs." I caught Thomas's look of gratitude in my peripheral vision. Thomas's allergy to eggs sometimes made going out to eat a little difficult, but he seemed to manage it pretty well. If he touched food that contained a large amount of eggs in it, his skin where the food touched would get a little red and blotchy, but he'd otherwise be fine. Eating eggs, however, was a totally different story: though the allergy wasn't severe enough to cause a life or death situation, Thomas wind up violently ill. I'd only ever witnessed his allergy in full swing one time, when I gave him a taste of my ice cream from a fast food place back home. Neither of us had known the place used eggs in their ice cream mix... The poor guy was practically living in the bathroom for about two days. He didn't blame me for it, but that didn't stop me from helping take care of him to make up for it. It... wasn't a pretty sight, to say the least.

     "Oh! Thank you for telling me. There will be nothing to worry about." Toriel responded, sounding very much like my own mother.

     I smiled, even though she couldn't see me from the other end. "Great, thanks mom." No sooner than I finished speaking did I realize what I'd just said. A hot wash of embarrassment permeated through my face and chest, though my friends stared at me with blatant amusement.

      _Oh my god, I really just did that. I called her mom. Why did I do that?_

     "Did you... call me mom?" Toriel's soft voice brought me back to reality. "Would... would that make you happy? To call me... mother?" Something in her voice sounded a tad hopeful, and for the life of me, I couldn't place why.

     I back pedaled pretty hard. "Uh, I, um... If you don't like that then I'm really sorry..." I apologized, but Toriel's soft laughter quieted me.

     "No, no, my child. It does not bother me. You can call me whatever makes you happy, and so can the rest of your friends." I could tell from her voice that she was smiling, and then the line beeped to show she'd hung up.

     I sheepishly faced my friends as I slid my phone back into my pocket, pointing to Gracia accusingly as she stifled her laughter. "Don't you dare judge me, you've done that before too." I stated.

     Gracia shrugged with an amused grin on her face. "Not with Toriel, I haven't!" Then she pat my shoulder. "Nah, it doesn't really matter what we call her. Hell, I've almost done the exact same thing. Must just be the vibe she gives off." She laughed at herself, and I smiled out of relief.

     "She also said that it's okay to call her mom, just for the record..." I pointed out to the others.

     "How did she react?" Jeanette asked, more amused that she probably should have been.

     I paused, remembering the warmth in her voice at my slip up. "Actually... She seemed to like it. Something in the way she spoke after..." I trailed off, trying and failing to articulate myself correctly. Regaining myself, I continued. "She just seemed to be a bit happier after I called her that." I shrugged, slipping my hands into my pants pockets as I didn't know what else to say.

     "Now her constantly calling us her 'children' makes more sense." Sabine commented. I had noticed Toriel's insistence on calling us that as well, and even though it seemed odd to me because we're all obviously not children, I figured it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. After all, Toriel has taken pretty nice care of us thus far: if she wanted to call us children, then who were we to stop her?

     "I think that's really sweet, y'know?" Leah's voice filled the almost awkward void I'd left. "She sounds and acts like she just wants to be a mom to somebody." I couldn't help my gaze briefly flickering over to Leah as she spoke. Of everybody in our friend group, Leah was the one who most wanted to have children and start a big family. Seeing children with their parents out in public would cause her to gasp and excitedly grasp onto the arm of whoever was closest to her, and she'd watch with yearning eyes as they'd go about their daily lives. And yet, out of anybody it could possibly be, it happened to be Leah whose body simply had trouble with fertility... life is an ironic, cruel mistress like that. How long ago had it been when Leah confided in me her fears of never starting a family? I couldn't remember, nor did I know if our friends knew as well, but I assumed they didn't and kept it under wraps. It was evident in how she spoke about Toriel that she related to the motherly monster, and honestly, I pitied them both.

     Nobody else had anything more to say, so we continued through the Ruins, solving puzzles and maneuvering through the catacombs surprisingly well considering how many of us there were to keep up with.

     Eventually, we entered a room where a large, barren tree stood tall towards the front. Red, somewhat crunchy leaves lay in a neat pile underneath the tree, totally tempting to jump into. Not too far away, tending to gathering more leaves into the pile, I noticed a large, familiar furry figure.

     "Oh, there you all are!" Toriel cried out and rushed over to us as soon as she noticed we'd arrived. She checked over us for signs of injury, and her face practically glowed with relief when she couldn't find anything wrong. "I took longer than expected... Maybe it was silly to surprise you like this." She paused, like she'd said something she shouldn't have, before breaking out a smile. "Well, I guess I can't hide it any longer. Come inside, my children." Toriel turned and walked into the quaint little house nearby, which I hadn't even noticed was there at first.

     "She did try to surprise us, I knew it!" Gracia whispered excitedly as we entered the house. As soon as we walked in, all we could smell was the sweet scent of baked goods that filled the air. It was warm inside as well, and though the decorating wasn't much, the minimalist approach made the house feel very cozy. I exhaled a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding, letting myself relax.

     "Welcome home, my children. Do you smell that?" Toriel spoke, smiling wide as we took a moment to sniff the heavenly scent.

     "Yeah, it's making me hungry!" Sabine piped in, to which the rest of us nodded.

     Toriel giggled a bit. "Surprise! It's a butterscotch-cinnamon pie, to celebrate your arrival... No worries though, it's egg free." She then turned to wink at Thomas, who perked up right away. She seemed so pleased with herself that she'd managed to make us something, radiating happiness. It was infectious, for I found myself smiling too.

     "Is it ready? Can we eat it now?" Leah asked, bouncing a little with excitement.

     "It's still in the oven, so not yet... But first, I want to show you something." She gestured down the right wing of the house, and we followed her a short distance to a door. "This will be your room. I didn't expect to find as many as seven of you, so there is only one bed for now... But we'll change that." She gently patted Charlie's head, as he was the closest one to her, and smiled lovingly at the rest of us. "I'm sure you're exhausted, so if you all would like to take a nap, you may do so in my bed: it's much larger than the one currently in your room. I must go check on the pie." She left us with a smile, heading down the hall and disappearing into another room.

     "So much for telling her we aren't staying, huh?" Jeanette muttered, and there was an uncomfortable vibe between us all. Honestly, the thought of breaking the news to Toriel now seemed cruel after all she'd done for us. I was going to say something, but as soon as I opened my mouth, a yawn escaped. I hadn't realized just how tired I was.

     "Well..." Sabine paused to yawn as well. "We can figure something out later... I think I wanna take Toriel's nap offer." There was a collective nod among us, and it was right then I realized just how much we'd gone through in a few hours: falling down into an unknown world, attacked by a flower, taken in by a caring motherly figure, navigating through a strange place, and eventually making it here. No wonder we were all so exhausted.

     "I think this door is Toriel's..." Gracia guessed, already opening the door next to the one Toriel showed us. We entered the room after Gracia, and just like the rest of the house, the room felt cozy and snug. Toriel had been right about her bed: it was a queen size.

     "Four of us could fit under the covers if we get snuggly, and the other three could probably lay horizontal at the foot of the bed to the four laying normally..." Gracia started trying to organize a plan, and I was almost amused that she was even trying to plan out sleep before realizing we were literally seven people trying to share one bed: a plan was almost mandatory.

     Nobody opposed her plan, so we just went ahead and climbed onto the bed. I quickly slid under the covers to stake my claim, grinning as the blankets provided a cozy embrace around me. Gracia, Thomas, and Charlie also got under the blankets, much to the grumbling of Leah, but she settled down with Jeanette and Sabine towards the foot of the bed. Truth be told, this wasn't the first time we've all shared a bed like this before: we've all been friends for two years, and have had a fair share of sleepovers as a result. Like holding hands, sharing beds was a platonic thing for us.

     As it was, I was snug between Charlie and Gracia, while Thomas was on Charlie's other side. Charlie was like a walking furnace, radiating heat at all times, and his large body frame made the entire bed feel warmer as a result. Gracia was the same way. I was always cold, so their shared heat kept me warm and feeling safe as we all got comfy.

     "Goodnight, guys." Charlie said softly. A small chorus of other goodnight's echoed back. I closed my eyes, letting myself go to sleep with the peace of mind that my friends were as warm and safe as I was.

     I was the first to wake up, as usual. Surprisingly, I felt pretty well rested and refreshed: that was a rare occurrence for me. Sleep and I don't always get along, but we must have been pretty friendly the past couple of hours. I lazily opened my eyes, not remembering where I was at first, but quickly realized it once I took a glance at my sleeping friends. Gracia was sleeping on her back, her mouth slightly agape as she softly snored. She was the only one who snored out of everybody in our group, and it was kind of impressive with how loud she could be. This time, however, her snoring provided a background noise that was almost soothing... almost. Charlie and I were back to back, the physical touch from his back making me feel secure. Back home, my bed is right up against the wall so I can press my back against it. I hated sleeping without something on my back... it made me feel exposed without something there. 

     I slowly sat up, careful to not disturb any of the sleeping bodies around me, and took a look around Toriel's room. Though it was a little dark, the night light in the corner made the floor visible... and it looked like there was something there. I squinted a bit to get a better look, and I realized that there was quite a bit of things on the floor. Seven little plates, each with an equal portion of pie, sat in a small line. I couldn't help but smile, thinking about the only one who could have left them there. 

     The weight on the mattress shifted, and I turned to see Thomas slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. His movements had a domino effect, and everybody else slowly came out of their slumber. Soon, we were all sitting up and looking at each other, not saying anything and just enjoying the peaceful silence while it lasted. Eventually, we filed out of the bed and each took a plate of pie, most of us opting to go ahead and eat it now. I wasn't hungry, so I was going to save it, and I noticed that Thomas was putting his slice in a spare plastic bag and slipping it in a protective pocket of his book bag.

     "Thomas, can I put my pie in your bag too?" I asked. He nodded, taking my slice and doing the same to it as he'd done with his. 

     "Okay, so we might as well address the elephant in the room." Gracia began, getting everybody's attention. "Who is going to break the news to Toriel that we can't stay?" Her pale blue eyes locked onto our individual faces for a few moments at a time, searching for a volunteer. Her question was met with heavily silence. Nobody wanted to potentially break Toriel's heart like that, especially not after everything she'd done to make us feel welcome and safe. "I know nobody wants to do this," Gracia finally sighed. "I don't either. Toriel has been good to us, but we can't stay down here. I think deep down, she knows that." Gracia paused, then turned to me. "Manon, I think you should be the one to say something."

     I felt a surge of apprehension. "Why me?"

     "Because you're good with words." Gracia affirmed. 

     "Only if I have enough time to think about what I'm gonna say beforehand..." I muttered. Truthfully, I was the least adept at thinking on the spot in our entire group, but Gracia didn't seem like she would rethink her choice. I let out a tired sigh. "Alright, alright. I'll do it..." I looked to everybody else as I trailed off. "But you all have to be there with me. If I say something by myself, it won't have as much of an impact." I saw nods of agreement, and with that, I stood up and walked out of the room. The rest of my friends followed suit, keeping close to me as I walked down the hall and into the other room, which I assumed was the living room because it had a fireplace. 

     Toriel was sitting in a large, plush chair that was next to the fire, reading a book. When she heard us approach, she looked up with her usual smile. "Ah, you're all awake," She observed. "How was the pie? Did you try it yet?" The eagerness in her voice broke my heart even more. 

     "The pie was delicious," Leah answered. "I ate mine a little too fast, probably."

     Toriel seemed pleased with her answer, and I felt like I was the scum of the earth for what I had to do. "Hey, mom..." I immediately regretted the decision to call her that. It was only sharpening the knife I was about to metaphorically stab her with... "We need to tell you something." I watched as Toriel's expression changed from a smile to an interested gaze. "We really appreciate you and everything you've provided for us; you've been a great help. But..." I found it hard to look her in the eyes, but I somehow managed to do it. "... We can't stay here. We need to get back up to the surface." 

     She seemed hurt, just as I predicted she would be. Toriel didn't say anything for a few seconds, then she donned a resigned smile. "I have to go do something. Stay here." She put down her book and quickly went out of the room, leaving us all in confusion. 

     "Should we go after her?" Charlie whispered. 

     "We didn't listen before, we might as well not listen now." Jeanette answered. With that, we hurried out of the room. Just as we rounded the corner, I saw a trace of white and purple disappear down the stairs in the next room. All seven of us began to hurry down after her, reaching the bottom floor that stretched into a corridor. It didn't look like the inside of Toriel's home anymore: actually, it looked a lot like the rest of the Ruins had before we even got to the house. Toriel had stopped in the middle of the corridor, just standing there, silent. My heart began to beat a little faster with how sinister Toriel seemed like that.

     "You wish to know how to return "home," do you not?" She began, asking in a normal tone. "Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins, a one-way exit to the rest of the Underground." She paused again, sighing. "I'm going to destroy it." Her words sent waves of shock through my body as well as my friends', for we were all watching her with wide eyes. "Then nobody will ever leave again... Now be good children and go upstairs." With that, she kept walking forward. Though my friends and I shared startled looks, I knew we couldn't turn back: we'd never get back to the surface otherwise. I kept walking, trailing behind Toriel, and my friends followed me.

     She did not turn around, nor slow her pace, but she kept talking. "You naive children... if you leave the Ruins... They -- Asgore -- will kill you." She paused, letting what she'd said sink in for us. I heard small gasps of shock from Leah and Gracia, and I could see the obvious fear etched onto all of my friends' faces as it was on my own. "I'm only protecting you, do you understand?" Nobody said anything, her question hanging limply in the air as we rounded the corner of the corridor.  "Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning." Though her tone was more serious than I'd ever heard it before, our resolve did not falter. We knew we couldn't stay here: we had no choice but to press forward.

     Eventually, we arrived at the large, heavy door that was surely the exit to the Ruins. Toriel stood before it, blocking the way. "You wish to leave that badly? Hmph. There is only one solution to this." She took a breath. "Prove yourself... prove to me you're strong enough to survive." Her words ran shivers down my spine, and Toriel turned around to face us with a stony expression. It looked so wrong to see her so emotionless and cold, and her stance blocked off access to the exit door. Immediately, two flashes of color emitted from all of our chests, and within seconds, our souls emerged before each of us.

     "W-Wait..." I stared at Toriel with widened eyes, almost refusing to believe what was happening. She stared through me and merely raised both of her paws, conjuring flames in both of them before sending a torrent of flames our way. With gasps of fear, we all did our best to duck out of the way of her fire magic, though some of the flames managed to lick against my soul. I winced from the pain, but realized that it wasn't as painful as it probably could have been. She wasn't necessarily trying to hurt us... she just wanted to discourage us from leaving.

     "Toriel, please!" Sabine cried out. "We don't have to do it this way!" 

     Toriel didn't respond to her at all, keeping silent as she sent another wave of fire towards us all. Her attacks were fast and patterned, and a few of us were not having a good time with keeping track of where it was going to go. I didn't get hit this time, but Gracia's cry of pain let me know she hadn't been so lucky. The magic narrowly missed Charlie and Jeanette, but Leah and Sabine couldn't move their souls out of the way in time. Thomas had practically dove to get himself and his soul out of the line of fire, but he still took some damage. 

     Toriel stared at us all with a slightly quizzical look. "What are you doing?"

     "Mom," Charlie answered. "We're not going to fight you!" His green soul quivered in the air beside him a little bit, the evidence of damage from the fire magic presenting itself in small cracks. Looking at each of our souls now, we all had the same small, randomly placed cracks on our heart shaped souls. I quickly pushed the scary thought of what would happen if a soul took too many hits and focused back on Toriel. She didn't seem as eager to be in her position as she once had been. Were we getting through to her?

     "Toriel," Thomas began, his tone thick with sadness as he rubbed some dirt off his cheek from when he'd hit the deck to avoid getting hit. "We can't stay here, just let us through!" His cobalt soul quivered too, heavy with the emotions he was feeling.

     Though she still did not move, Toriel's expression became somewhat sadder. "What are you proving this way?" Her question hung in the air, quickly drowned out by the sound of her sending more fire attacks our way. We managed to avoid that one with minimal damage, nobody getting caught directly in the attack this time around. An improvement, but we needed to end this as quickly as possible. Toriel didn't seem pleased that we weren't fighting back or giving up, anger and sadness at war with each other in her russet eyes. "Fight me or leave!" She yelled out before sending a harsher wave of fire careening towards us all. None of us had been ready for an attack of that caliber. The fire engulfed us as well as our souls, though the pain we felt came from what our soul endured as opposed to our bodies, so we physically did not burn. I could feel tears forming in the corners of my eyes as I and my friends cried out from the pain, the flames of magic all we could see for a few seconds. 

     Eventually, the fire dissipated, and though I was still on my feet, I was still in pain. My soul had more cracks, larger than before, and I felt short of breath, panting heavily. My friends were all in similar conditions, but even as we endured the pain from our souls, we stood our ground. Toriel looked at us all, wounded yet still standing, and all her anger melted away to sadness. "I know you want to go home, but..." She trailed off, then regained her train of thought. "Stay here with me. I know we don't have much, but we could make the most of it. We can still be happy here, all together..."  She was begging us now, it was obvious by her voice. 

     "Toriel..." Leah finally spoke, hunched over a bit and resting her hands on her knees. "We probably could be happy... for a little while. But we have to go back."

     "No, I understand. You'd feel cramped living down here... the Ruins get very small once you're used to them." Toriel cast her gaze to the ground for a moment before she looked back at us, chuckling a joyless laugh. "Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save even a single one of you..." She trailed off again, then faced us once more. "My expectations... my loneliness... my fear... For you, my children, I will set them aside." She lowered her hands, and the tension in the air melted away. Toriel stepped forward towards us, obviously trying to keep her sadness lowkey, but her eyes betrayed her in that regard. "If you all truly wish to leave the Ruins... I will not stop you. However, when you leave,, please do not come back. I hope you understand..." Toriel finally bent down on her knees and opened her arms to us. It didn't take us long to fill her open arms, all of us creating one big group hug. We were silent during the hug, though I could see the cracks in our souls begin to mend and eventually disappear: she must have been healing us. 

     "Bye... Thanks for everything." Gracia whispered to Toriel, who responded only by nuzzling her furry face against Gracia's. When she let us go, she gave us all one more long look like she was trying to take in the sight of us all, and then she walked around us, headed down the corridor and around the corner. The seven of us stood in silence as our souls went back into our bodies, the sadness hanging thick in the air. Eventually, Gracia went forward and pushed the door open, a creaking sound ringing out from the hinges as if it hadn't been opened in a very long time. The corridor through the door seemed like a long one, and we went forward in our little cluster, sticking together as we walked down the long stretch into the next room, which was rather dark.

     "Clever," The sudden sound of a voice caused us all to jump. Our gazes fell onto the single figure in the center of the room, and I felt my heart start beating faster than before. It was Flowey, staring up at us with a smug grin. "Verrryyy clever."

     "What the hell do you want?" Sabine growled out. 

     "Calm down, cupcake. I'm just gonna talk to you." Flowey retorted, then continued on. "In this world, it's kill or be killed. Sure, you were able to spare the life of a single person this time..." His expression turned somewhat sinister. "But what if you meet a relentless killer? With that pacifist attitude, you'll die and you'll die and you'll die. You'll tire of trying eventually. What will you do then?" Flowey's face suddenly morphed into the frightening smile he'd made when he first attacked us. "Will you kill out of frustration?" His voice had that demonic quality to it again, and it set the rest of us on guard as we stared him down. Flowey laughed at us, then continued. "Don't worry, my little monarchs... my plan isn't regicide. This is SO much more interesting." With a final maniacal laugh, Flowey burrowed under the ground and disappeared.

     "I swear to God, if I get my hands on that fucking flower, I'll wring it by its stem!" Gracia's hands were made into tight fists, and Charlie put his hand on her shoulder to try and calm her back down. She seemed to come back to her senses, taking a deep breath, and then faced us all. "We... we should keep going and actually get out of here before I go stir crazy." With her words as a motivator, we crossed the room to the other side and pushed through the heavy doors that separated us from the outside world.

    Our real journey had finally begun. 


	6. Snowy

     "Oh _fuck,_ it's cold!" Gracia's exasperated complaint carried a bit, echoing through the now open area. She wasn't wrong: as soon as we opened the final door of the Ruins, a blast of cold air hit our faces without warning. The frigid air enveloped our bodies like an unwelcome hug, causing us all to shiver and huddle closer together for warmth. I took in the sight before us: a dense forest clad in snow and ice, with a path cleared stretched out before us. It was truly beautiful, especially to me since I love winter and snow, but even I wasn't happy with feeling like the cold was seeping into my bones. I was fortunate enough to be wearing a sweater, and some of us had on long-sleeves and long pants, but not everybody was dressed for the drastic climate change.

     "Y-You think Toriel could have s-said something about it being  _winter_?" Sabine's biting tone was downplayed by cold causing her chattering teeth. She rubbed her arms quickly to get some semblance of warmth. 

     "People who are w-wearing the least, get in the center of the huddle." Gracia encouraged. "We don't need anybody getting frostbite out here." Her words were convincing enough, even without the threat of frostbite lingering over us. Sabine, Jeanette, and Leah pushed their way into the center of our huddle, as their outfits were more fit for spring climate (like we were in before we fell down), and we enveloped them to share the warmth. 

     "Alright," Charlie piped in. "Let's find somewhere we can warm up." With that, we began to walk, huddled together for security and warmth. I still prefered to be in the back of the huddle, and after a short while I felt frustrated having to time my steps to those of the others. I pulled myself away from the huddle with little effort, though I did have to admit it was much colder walking on my own.

     "Manon!" Gracia called out. "Why are you not in the huddle? I know you like cold weather, but you'll freeze!" Though she was raising her voice at me, I knew it was just because she cared. 

     I waved at her dismissively. "No, I'm fine, I've got a sweater." Then I offered a smile. "Besides, I can watch our backs if I hang back here." That much was true: I liked trailing behind a little because I felt like I had more of a purpose if I was watching their backs... Not that they knew that, of course, but they didn't have to. All that mattered was that I keep them safe in my own way. 

     Gracia seemed to think over my reason, then she gave me an admissible shrug, like she was saying it wasn't what she'd have done but she wasn't going to stop me. I smirked a bit at her, but we continued on our way in silence: mostly because it was too cold to speak, but also to keep an ear out for anything that may be nearby. I took a moment to scan our surroundings, but apart from a sturdy-looking fallen branch in the middle of the path, there was nothing but snow and trees as far as the eye could see. 

     My friends merely stepped over the branch, not bothering with it other than a passing glance. I stepped over it as well, but I did give it a gentle tap with my foot to test how sturdy it was. It probably fell off because it was rotten, but it still had some substance to it. If I put all my weight on it, then it might break. Shrugging my observations off, I continued following my friends, scanning the trees for signs of anything unusual.

      _SNAP._

I froze at the sudden sound behind me. I quickly looked over my shoulder, but I didn't see anything. I was about to dismiss it, but then I noticed the branch that was now a little ways back. It was snapped in two, rotten splinters littering the snow where the break was. 

     My heart began to race, and I looked to my friends, who were still going forward and hadn't seemed to notice anything was wrong. I debated telling them about the branch, but if it turned out that I was overreacting, I also didn't want to needlessly worry them.

     Even more alert, I kept walking too, looking over my shoulder every few minutes. Though there wasn't anything there, I had an odd feeling... like I was being watched. Yet even as I diligently searched the trees and strained my hearing for any sign of movement, I had nothing but the broken branch to go off of. Maybe I was just imagining things, and the shock of everything that's happened was getting to me, nothing more... 

     The faint sound of soft footsteps in the snow grabbed my attention and sent my pulse into overdrive. I whipped my head around to try and see something, anything, but my sight was met by only trees. It felt like my blood was replaced with adrenaline with how hard my heart was pounding. I was almost positive about it now: somebody was here, and whoever they were, they were too close to my friends for my liking. 

     "Manon?" Charlie's sudden voice made me jump, and I turned around to see my friends all staring at me. "You okay?" Charlie's voice was low and soothing, as if he were talking to a child. I knew I couldn't lie to them about the potential danger, that just wouldn't be fair. 

     With a heavy breath, I looked my friends in the eyes. "Guys... I think we're being followed." My words sent a fresh wave of fear over my friends, and I hated seeing them like that. "Just keep walking. Whoever it is, they're behind us, so they'll have to get through me before they can even think about reaching you guys." I firmly believed in what I said, and my fists clenched as physical proof of my resolve to keep them safe. If I was being honest, my friends were all I had anymore: if something happened to them, I'd never forgive myself. 

     "No," Gracia's tone was authoritative and her pale eyes flashed with a challenge. "You're not recklessly putting yourself in danger like that." Her eyes were piercing in this moment, but I held my ground. "If something happens, we can handle it together." She sounded like she was scolding me, which I did my best to not let get to me. 

     "Gracia, I'm not saying you're all weak." I calmly countered. "But think of it this way: if I'm not watching your backs, then we're all one big moving target. If I'm back here, then there's a buffer between them and you guys." I kept my own gaze firm, but not sharp: the last thing we needed was an argument. I slipped my hands into my pants pockets, keeping myself calm. "I'm stronger than I look, and you all know that."

     "Toriel said not to hurt anyone." Sabine suddenly chimed in, and the attention was immediately shifted to her. Our gazes locked together in a silent war, and I took the time to gather my thoughts. With a deep breath, I looked her in the eyes.

     "And I don't want to hurt anyone," I began. "I'll refrain from violence as much as I can. But I'm not going to stand by idly if you all end up needing me." I was speaking as calmly as I could, then I looked to the others. "I know you all would do the same for me too."

     There was silence for a moment, then Gracia sighed. "It doesn't hurt to have somebody watching our backs. Just... Don't be stupid. We'll help you instantly if something happens." I could tell she was irritated by my choice, but she simply didn't understand how willing I was to protect them at all costs. In an environment like this, we needed all we could get. 

     We kept walking in the snow, silent and heavy with worry, all the while remaining vigilant. I was so tensed up, but I didn't dare let myself relax. I remained constantly alert, nearly jumping at every sound and slight movement I detected. As we walked, Toriel's words rang in my head:

    _"They -- Asgore -- will kill you."_

I had no idea who she was talking about. Was Asgore a single entity? An organization? The fact that monsters even existed was hard enough to wrap my head around, but why did they want to kill us? What did monsters have against humans? There had to be pieces to this puzzle that I just wasn't seeing... 

     "H u m a n ."

     A sudden husky voice was whispering behind me. I froze, fear pulsing through my body faster than I could breathe. I didn't dare turn around, merely taking in shaky breaths as my eyes were wide as the moon from fear. I watched as my friends realized I wasn't keeping up, turning around to see me frozen with fear, and staring in terror over my shoulder. 

     "D o n ' t  y o u  k n o w  h o w  t o  g r e e t  a  n e w  p a l ?"

     The husky voice spoke a bit louder now, and I could feel a presence directly behind me. I felt so exposed and frightened, but I knew that if I turned around and immediately reacted violently, we would certainly get attacked. Maybe we would end up okay if we complied with whatever this entity wanted... That's what I was hoping for.

     "T u r n  a r o u n d  a n d  s h a k e  m y  h a n d ."

     I drew in a shaky breath and slowly turned around, though my breath caught in my throat as I saw the hooded figure that stood menacingly behind me. I couldn't see a face because of the hood, and the way the stranger's hand was partially covered by the sleeve of the hoodie unnerved me. But when I got a good look at the hand offered to me, I realized that it was completely made of bone: no flesh, hair, or fur of any kind. I shakily reached out my hand and took his -- I assumed the stranger was male by the voice and build -- and grasped it firmly. 

     A long, drawn out fart sound rang out through the area.

     Fear melted to confusion, and I stared at the bony hand I was holding. Soon, a deep laugh bubbled up from the stranger, and he let go of my hand, reaching up for his hoodie. When he took his hood down, I realized I was staring at the smiling face of a skeleton.

     "Heh heh... The old 'whoopee cushion in the hand' trick, it's always funny." The skeleton spoke in a laid back tone, tugging his sleeve down to reveal his entire hand as well as the small whoopee cushion in his palm. Now that I got a good look at him, he didn't seem nearly as threatening as he had been. The fact that our souls hadn't appeared must have meant he didn't intend on attacking... That enough put me at ease even further. In fact, I actually found it in me to laugh, but whether I was laughing from the joke or relief was unknown even to me. I heard separate chuckles from my friends behind me, and the skeleton seemed pleased at our laughter.

     He slipped his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, then looked back up at us, the smile never faltering all the while. "I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton." He took a moment to each of us over individually, though I found it a little odd... like he was counting us, in a way. "I'm actually supposed to be watching for humans right now." 

     "Watching... For humans?" Thomas asked softly. 

     Sans nodded. "Yeah, I'm on sentry duty for Snowdin, the town that's not too far from here. But, y'know..." He shrugged. "I don't really care about capturing anybody." 

     We cast a few discreet looks to each other. Capturing humans? Is this what Toriel was warning us about? This was just another confusing piece of the puzzle as to why there was a schism between monsters and humans, and no matter which way I seemed to turn it, the piece didn't fit. Not yet, anyway.

     When I looked back to Sans, he seemed to be staring right at me, like he'd seen the worried looks we'd given each other. He lazily shifted his weight to one side, and I became acutely aware of the fact he was wearing fuzzy slippers. No wonder his footsteps sounded so soft: slippers on snow are awfully quiet. 

     "Now my brother, Papyrus..." Sans began, his expression generally neutral as he took the sight of us in again. Well, as neutral as you could be with a smile on your face. "He's a human hunting fanatic." 

     "Wait," Charlie interrupted. "Did you say... Human hunting?" His voice reflected his fear, and he wasn't alone in that. It was clear by one look at our faces that we were afraid. 

     The skeleton nodded, but he had a thoughtful look. "Actually, I think he's on his way over here... but I have an idea." Sans spoke again, and at this point, we were all ears. "Go through that gate thingy. My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." The skeleton gestured a little ways ahead of us towards the structure that loomed over a bridge. I hadn't even noticed it since I was too on guard before Sans showed up. We quickly made our way across the bridge and through the gate bars, with Sans bringing up the rear as our little cluster made its way through. 

     Once we were on the other side, Sans pointed off to the side of the path. "Quick, behind those conveniently shaped lamps." I was totally confused at first, but I followed his point and was thoroughly surprised: there were seven lamps, just standing in a row, each our exact heights and kinked just so our faces would be obscured if you looked at us head on. I was about to question it, but since Sans was urging us on, there wasn't any time. All seven of us chose the lamp that most resembled us and stood perfectly still behind it. 

     Almost immediately after we got settled, quick footsteps could be heard arriving onto the scene. 

     "'Sup, bro?" I easily recognized Sans's voice. 

     "You know what's 'up,' brother!" A new voice, much more distinct and energized in comparison to Sans's low and casual voice, rang out enthusiastically and clear. That had to be Papyrus. "It's been eight days, and you still haven't recalibrated. your. puzzles! You just hang around outside your station!" He sounded exasperated, then gave a small sigh. "What are you even doing?" His question was posed much calmer than his other statements had been. 

     "Starin' at these lamps." My heart felt like it exploded with fear. What the hell was Sans doing?! "They're really cool. Wanna look?" Rage at myself for so easily trusting Sans built up in my chest, but I still didn't dare move. 

     "No! I don't have time for that!" I thought I heard the faint sound of a foot being stomped on the ground in frustration. I let out the quietest sigh of relief I could muster. "What if a human comes through here?! I want to be ready!" Papyrus sounded genuinely annoyed at Sans, but I couldn't be sure since I couldn't see it take place. "I will be the one -- I must be the one -- to capture a human!" The other voice began to sound less annoyed and more hopeful. "Then I, the great Papyrus, will get all the things I utterly deserve! Respect, recognition... I will finally be able to join the royal guard." From the sounds of things, he was fantasizing. "I will bathe in a shower of kisses every morning!" 

     I almost couldn't help but giggle at that last part, but I bit my tongue hard to keep myself quiet. At least everybody else was able to keep it together, too.

     "Hmm..." Sans's voice appeared again. "Maybe these lamps can help you." I was almost angry again at Sans's constant trying to get Papyrus over to our lamps, but I sort of wondered if Papyrus would even agree to look since he seemed so preoccupied with other things. After all, Sans didn't seem malicious enough to trick us like that... not really, anyway.

     "Sans! You're not helping, lazybones!" Papyrus's annoyance flared up again. "You get lazier and lazier every day!"

     "Hey, take it easy. I've gotten a ton of work done today." A pause. "... A skele-ton." Oh my God, he just made a pun. I loved puns of all kinds, and I had to dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands to keep from cracking up. I knew Thomas was likely doing the same thing, as he was my partner in crime when it came to puns, but I was thankful nobody had cracked yet.

      Papyrus, however, didn't seem to appreciate it. "Sans!" He groaned. 

     "C'mon, you're smiling."

     "I am, and I hate it!" A sigh followed. "Why does someone as great as me have to do so much just for some recognition?" 

     "Wow. Sounds like you're working yourself..."

      _Don't do it._

     "... Down to the bone."

     "SANS!" Papyrus's exasperation was almost funny. "I will attend to my puzzles... As for your work? Put a little more... Backbone into it! Nyeh heh heh!" I was biting my tongue so hard to not laugh, especially at Papyrus's peculiar cackling. Eventually, I heard footsteps grow fainter and fainter, and there was a brief pause while we stood in the frigid air.

     "Okay, you can come out now." Sans's voice came back again, and I felt myself let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. All seven of us emerged from our conveniently shaped lamps and were welcomed by the sight of Sans, who stood there with his hands in his hoodie pockets, still smiling. 

     "That was... Papyrus?" Thomas asked, obviously nervous. 

      Sans nodded, then offered a casual reassuring glance to us. "Hey, don't worry about it. Papyrus isn't dangerous or scary..." He trailed off before chuckling to himself. "... Even if he tries to be." Soft, half-hearted laughs rippled through my friends, obviously trying to cheer ourselves up. Fake it 'til you make it, right?

      The skeleton could tell we still weren't confident about the situation, and he gently nudged Gracia with his elbow. "Actually, hey... Hate to bother ya, but could you all do me a favor? My brother's been kinda down lately, and seeing you guys just might make his day." Then he winked, though I wasn't sure how that was even possible considering he's made of bone. Monster biology, maybe? "You go on. I'll be up ahead." And with that, the skeleton turned around and walked in the opposite direction Papyrus left in, though it seemed after I blinked he was already gone. 

      "Did he just...?" Leah asked, asking what we were all thinking. 

      "Hell with it, we might as well go." Gracia chimed in. "We seem to have a friend on our side now." Then she turned on her heel, leading the way. Sabine and Charlie looked to me, and I just shrugged in acceptance. Our band of seven huddled together and hit the road again, trudging through the snow.


	7. Enemy Approaching?

     I couldn't really explain what this feeling was that had come over all of us. It was a mix of emotions that kept on swirling from one feeling to another, like a pot that was simmering at the moment, but had potential to reach a boiling point. From my point of view, it felt like it was mostly fear with a dash of hope contained within the pot, and I prayed that it wasn't the truth. Despite that prayer, I knew that underlying all of us, there was a common thread of fear among us: fear that we'd never return home.

      _We'll make it home... We've got to. I_ assured myself and discarded the negativity before it could fester. 

     "Sans said there was a town up ahead somewhere, right?" Sabine's voice brought my attention back to outside my head. Everybody was still more or less huddled together for warmth, though with enough space for us to move more freely than we had been before... trying to navigate through snow with limited steps was frustrating, to say the least. 

     "Yeah, but I wish he'd been less vague about where it is..." I chimed in, my voice trailing off as I tried to look further up the path for some kind of sign that we were making progress. All I could see were seemingly endless stretches of snow covered trees.

     "Fuuuuuuuck!" Jeanette groaned, lolling her head back in exasperation. "I'm so sick of being cold, and I'd kill for a warm bed right now." Her complaints were greeted with murmurs of agreement.

     "Toriel had a warm bed for us..." I heard Leah softly say to herself. It was obvious that she felt connected to the motherly monster in some way (likely the strong maternal instincts), so a part of me sympathized with what was surely a torn Leah. Getting home was the goal, but somehow it felt like Leah would've stayed much longer with Toriel if the choice was up to her.

     "Shh," Charlie interjected, and we fell silent. "I hear something around the bend." 

      We all looked up to see the path curved to the left, the abundance of trees making it difficult to see what was waiting around the bend. I listened hard.

     After a few seconds, I heard something too. "Are those...?"

     "Voices?" Thomas finished my thought. 

     "Not just any voices," Gracia perked up. "One of them sounds like Sans... The other might be his brother." She took the courageous few steps ahead to lead the way, and the rest of us followed closely behind. I felt Leah grasp my left hand, and I gave her my best reassuring squeeze as we traversed the snowy curve.

     Sure enough, two skeletons stood in the middle of the path once it straightened up, facing each other. One was familiar, with his short stature, thick blue hoodie and his smiling face -- Sans. The other skeleton was much taller than Sans, but the most eye catching thing about him was the vibrant red scarf around his neck. It appeared to be knitted, as stray snowflakes caught in the stitching and dappled the red scarf with white. Not only was his scarf colored red, but so were his warm gloves and his boots, tall and sturdy looking as the skeleton that wore them. His upper body was clad in a white... something. I wasn't actually sure what it was, all I knew was it covered his upper body and seemed to be protective gear of some kind. He wore  _very_ short cobalt shorts too, though that puzzled me. If the cold wasn't an issue for skeletons (as I assumed it wasn't by his choice of pants), then why did he and Sans bother wearing clothes at all? Was that considered obscene? Who the hell knows.

     "So, as I was saying about Undyne..." Papyrus spoke, though he cut himself off once he seemed to notice we'd come around the bend. Despite his generally non-intimidating appearance and Sans' assurance that he wasn't dangerous, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous with his gaze on us. He turned to look at Sans, but Sans was the one looking at us now. He was still smiling, but unlike the rest of us, he seemed to have no apprehension about this sudden meeting. Something in the smaller skeleton's eyes as he looked back at us made me relax: probably how unconcerned he was that Papyrus had finally seen us. Sans then turned to look at Papyrus, but the taller skeleton's gaze was back on us. They tried to catch each other's eye, one brother looking at the other quicker as they went, but they just missed each other every time. I heard Thomas try (and fail) to suppress a giggle. 

     Finally, the two skeletons looked each other in the eyes and abruptly turned their backs to us, huddled together as if they were having a secret meeting. 

     "Sans! Oh my god!" For what could be considered a private conversation, Papyrus was totally not whispering or trying to be subtle at all. Perhaps he was one of those types of people with naturally loud voices? He and Sabine had a lot in common if that was the case. "Are those... humans?!"

     "Uhh... Actually, I think those are rocks." Sans' familiar voice was almost like a breath of fresh air in this uncertain world. The skeleton brothers then turned around and locked their eyes on something that seemed to be behind us. I looked over my shoulder, following their gaze to a pile of rocks. I felt confused, and judging by the odd aura in the air amongst my friends, I wasn't alone in that feeling.

     "Oh..." Papyrus sounded slightly disappointed.

     "Does he not see us...?" Charlie whispered. Gracia's face had confusion practically written all over it, perhaps with a little bit of "what the fuck" mixed in, too. 

     "But hey, what's in front of the rocks?" Sans spoke again, gesturing in our direction with a little sway of his head. 

     "Oh my god!" Papyrus was excited again, a broad smile returning to his face. He quickly leaned down and whispered (rather loudly, I might add) "Are those humans?"

     Without even breaking eye contact with my friends and I, Sans responded with a relaxed "Yes." 

     "Oh my god!!" Papyrus grew more excited. "Sans, I finally did it! Undyne will... I'm gonna... I'll be so..." The tall skeleton was so ecstatic, he barely knew how to contain himself. He threw his hands into the air. "Popular! Popular! Popular!" His celebration ended as quickly as it began, for Papyrus suddenly straightened up his posture and cleared his throat. "Humans!" Papyrus' voice was more authoritative than it had once been. "You shall not pass this area! I, the great Papyrus, will stop you!" He held his head high. "I will capture you! You will be delivered to the capital, then... then...!" He trailed off, losing his confident air for a moment. "... I'm not sure what's next." His mood changed immediately, back to his confident pose and tone of voice. "Continue... Only if you dare!" Papyrus grinned, spun on his heel, and ran off into the snowy forest, cackling his distinct "Nyeh heh heh!" as he departed, leaving us and Sans behind.

     A few hushed snickers echoed throughout my friends, and Sans seemed to be watching us a bit intently. He adjusted his hands within his hoodie pockets, then heaved a small sigh.

     "Well... that went well." Sans finally said, that same smile still on his face. If I didn't know any better, I'd start to assume that it was permanent. 

     "Papyrus seems great... and funny!" Sabine spoke through her giggling, trying to muffle it with her hands somewhat over her mouth.

     Sans seemed to take her words well, a satisfied glint in his eyes. "Yeah," He replied. "He's the coolest." The smaller skeleton then turned around and began to walk away, off into the same direction that Papyrus ran off in.

     "Wait!" Charlie called out, causing Sans to stop and look over his shoulder at us. "Aren't you gonna help us navigate these woods? We don't know where we're going..." His voice trailed off as he looked into the distance at the snow-covered trees that seemed to mirror each other. 

     "Hey, don't worry..." Sans winked at us (which still baffled me as to how that was possible). "I'll keep an eye socket out for ya." And with that, he walked off, seemingly disappearing into the icy wilderness ahead. And just like that, we were alone again.

     "Y'know," Jeanette piped up. "For a small skeleton, he sure seems to get around pretty fast..." Murmurs of agreement rippled through our group, and just like nothing had happened, we kept moving forward.

     I allowed myself some time to take in the snowy world around me, feeling myself smile as a few stray snowflakes gently brushed against my cheeks. I almost never got to see snow because of where I grew up, but I've always loved winter and icy weather. It was like I'd died and gone to an unfamiliar yet comforting heaven with all this snow around. I noticed Thomas and Gracia were reaching out to any snowflakes fluttering by and letting them land in their hands, smiling and laughing to themselves like fascinated children. Leah and Jeanette weren't as thrilled with the snow and ice all around them, but they seemed to be having a nice little conversation about their favorite wintertime drinks as they walked huddled together for warmth. Sabine was absentmindedly reaching up to touch the snow on any low hanging branches that happened to extend into her path, while Charlie kicked up a flurry or two with every few steps he took. I took in the sight of all my friends and felt my smile grow wider. It felt nice to see all of us together, safe, and more or less happy despite the circumstances... Slow moments like these were always the ones I cherished the most.

     A sudden movement off to the left caught my eye. Immediately on alert, I whipped my head around to face whatever just arrived on the scene. As soon as I looked over, I locked eyes with a bird-like monster. It had a peculiar structure to it's head, almost like a snowflake, and it's feathers were greyish white and thick, probably to help protect from the cold. Two bright red flashes emitted from my chest before my candy red soul manifested before me, and it was then that I knew I'd entered a fight. My friends also noticed this newcomer, and each of their souls had manifested before them as well.

     For a few moments, neither we nor the monster knew what to do or say. Eventually, Charlie stepped forward with a smile on his face. "Hi!" He greeted the monster. "What kind of monster are you?" He seemed to be taking the route of kindness that Toriel had taught us, and if I was being honest, I didn't really mind that he was taking control of the situation at the moment. Besides, his pacifist technique might be better for us in the long run... my first instincts when encountering new monsters immediately scream to be on guard and ready to attack. While being on guard wasn't a bad thing in an unfamiliar place, maybe sticking with Toriel's method and not attacking anyone wasn't a bad idea either. I really needed to relax.

     The monster seemed to nervously shift his weight from one leg to the other, then looked my friend in the eye. "I'm... I'm a Snowdrake." He spoke in a bit of a raspy voice, and though he looked intimidating, he didn't sound as confident as he might've looked. 

     "Oh, cool!" Charlie said, then he chuckled to himself. "Get it? Cool? Because it's cold?" He seemed awful proud of himself for his awful pun, which Thomas and I still snickered at. Puns of all sorts, bad ones included, were our favorite. Gracia and Leah rolled their eyes. The Snowdrake didn't seem too phased by Charlie's pun, continuing to stare him down. Charlie finished chuckling to himself, then seemed to find himself again. "My name is Charlie, what's yours?" He asked.

     The Snowdrake blinked at him, staring blankly for a moment, as if he hadn't expected Charlie to ask him such a thing. "Well... My name is Snowy." He didn't seem as stand-offish as he'd once been. Kudos to Charlie for making him comfortable, I suppose.

     "Snowy?" Sabine repeated. "That's a nice name! And it fits you, since you're a Snowdrake and all." She smiled at the monster, who seemed to get a little shy but smiled back, even if just a little bit. 

     "You... You guys like jokes?" Snowy suddenly asked, as if it had taken some effort to get the words out. I didn't blame him for being a little nervous -- I'd be intimidated too if I suddenly met a huge group of people and they were being really buddy-buddy with me. He suddenly looked right at me and Thomas, which I have to admit startled me a little bit because of how intense the monster's gaze was. "You two laughed at puns... You like puns?" Snowy asked again, staring intently at me and my friend.

     "Puns are my favorite!" Thomas piped up, a friendly smile on his face. He seemed to have no fear or hesitation of any sort to talk to Snowy, which I found a little remarkable... It was almost as if my friends had forgotten Toriel's words before we left the Ruins:

  _"They -- Asgore -- will kill you..." That's what she told us, a_ _nd yet, every monster we'd met since walking out that big door had been civil to us... did Toriel make that up just to keep us from leaving? Or did she mean something else entirely?_

     Snowy's encouraged expression pulled me out of my thoughts. This was no time to get lost in my own head. "Well... Wanna hear a joke?" Snowy asked, sounding much more at ease than he'd been at first. 

     "Sure, go for it!" Leah encouraged, and all seven of us stood with open ears, waiting for Snowy to tell us his joke.

     "Oh! Okay..." Snowy straightened up and cleared his throat. "What's... What's a snowman's favorite food?" He asked, looking to us expectantly.

     "I dunno, what's a snowman's favorite food?" Gracia responded.

     Snowy suddenly seemed a little bit nervous to tell us the punchline. He suddenly averted his gaze from us and stared at the ground for a moment, occasionally flicking his eyes up to look at us again -- I think so many pairs of eyes on him unnerved him a little bit. I did my best encouraging smile for Snowy as he seemed to gather his words. After taking a deep breath, the monster was able to look us in the eye again. "M... Macaroni and  _freeze_." 

     Thomas and I were the first to laugh, followed by Charlie and Jeanette. Gracia smiled and forced believable laughter (puns weren't her style, but hey, she was trying for the poor monster), while Leah clapped for Snowy, who seemed a little bit blown away that he'd gotten a positive reaction from us. He stood up straighter and puffed out his chest a little bit, smiling proudly for himself. "See? Laughs!" He proudly exclaimed to nobody in particular. "Dad was wrong..." He whispered that part, possibly for only himself to hear, but I'd managed to catch it. My heart broke a little for the Snowdrake, but I didn't let it show that I'd heard him. 

     "That was a cute one." Gracia commented, then she gave him a thumbs up. "Keep practicing and you can make even greater jokes, I know it!" Her pep talk seemed to strike a chord with Snowy, and the monster nodded eagerly.

     "Thanks! My dad is a comedian, and I want to be just as good as him!" Snowy's face fell a little bit. "But he says that puns aren't good enough to make people laugh." 

     "Well, not  _everybody_ loves puns or thinks they're funny," Jeanette replied. "But there are plenty of people who do! Besides, puns are good practice for when you're just starting out."

     "Yeah, you'll get there!" Sabine encouraged. 

     Snowy seemed to be a little overwhelmed by all the positivity, and though he sniffled, he had a big grin on his face. "Thanks, humans... You guys are really nice!" He looked over his shoulder back towards the trees, then back to us. "I should probably get home now, but... thanks for being my audience for a bit." Snowy smiled at us and started to take a few steps back towards the trees, waving a wing towards us.

     "Bye, Snowy! Keep practicing!" Thomas called after the budding comedian as Snowy disappeared into the forest. 

     "What a nice kid." Leah remarked. "Hope he finds his way, y'know?"

     "He can do it, I'm sure." Gracia assured, then she gestured to the path. "And we should keep going on our way too." With a few nods of agreement, we all started on the icy path again, navigating through the trees and frozen over boulders. It wasn't long until we sudden saw a shack of sorts along the side of the path, preceded by a sign. Curious, I walked up to the sign and brushed a bit of the snow away so I could read the writing on the wood. It read:

      **Absolutely NO MOVING!!!**

"Um... the hell?" Gracia laughed, reading over my shoulder. "What is that supposed to mean? Who has a vendetta against movement?" Though we laughed, it was actually a good question.

     "So far, nothing in The Underground has made sense," Charlie commented. "I'm not too surprised by a sign at this point."

     "What's the shack for, then?" Leah inquired, and we all turned our attention to the wooden structure nearby. Approaching it made it obvious that it wasn't so much of a shack as it was a sentry station, much like the one we saw a couple miles back where we first met Sans. This one, however, was different in that it had a little silver bell on the counter. Without much thought, I reached up to the bell and rang it. The sound was clear, but a little shrill for my liking. 

     All of a sudden, a black and white dog slowly stood up from below the counter, glancing around with shifty eyes and half of a dog treat hanging out of its mouth. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a name tag pinned to his vest: Doggo. Something about the vibe he gave off made me feel on guard, and I clenched my fists by my sides. 

     "Did something move? Was it my imagination?" The dog suddenly spoke. "I can only see moving things..." He kept glancing around, a glint of aggression in his eyes. "If something WAS moving... for example, humans..." His voice trailed off as he stared right at us, making my heart quicken with fear. I heard Leah whimper beside me. "I'll make sure they NEVER move again!" Quick as a blink, Doggo leaped over the counter of the sentry station and stood on his strong hind legs before us, wielding dual swords with his two remaining paws. He snarled in suspicion of the area, glaring from side to side. 

     My instincts took over and I immediately stood in a defensive stance, and my friends did the same. Two flashes of light emitted from our chests, and all of our souls were suddenly out and exposed for Doggo. He seemed to have noticed our souls' movements, for Doggo suddenly focused on our direction and with a growl, he began to brandish his two swords. "Don't move an inch, I'm coming for ya!" Doggo cried out a bit dramatically, then blue magic began to glow around his blades. He sent the magic towards us with flicks of his swords, and even though he seemed to have vision trouble, he had pretty accurate aim as his magic careened right for us.

     "Nobody fucking move, stay still and be silent!" Gracia hissed at us in a hushed voice. We didn't have time to question her methods, for the blue magic had already reached us. It swept over our bodies and souls, but nothing happened. No pain, no cracks in our souls, nothing. Amazing!

     Doggo seemed a bit frustrated that there wasn't any response to his attack, shiftily looking around and twirling one of his swords in his paws as he searched for any sign that there was something in front of him. 

      _He's so aggressive!_ I thought.  _What can we do to calm him down? What do dogs like?_ I pondered for a second, then it hit me like a ton of bricks: dogs like to be pet! I waited until Doggo wasn't looking at me, then I took a step or two towards him.

    "Manon, what the hell are you doing?!" Gracia whisper-shouted from behind me. "He'll see you!" I ignored her, reached out my hand, and began to pet Doggo's fur. It was thick and a bit coarse, but otherwise healthy. He must take good care of his fur.

     Immediately, Doggo flinched and recoiled away from my touch with a confused yelp. "What?!" He cried out. "I've been pet!!" He kept looking around, desperately trying to find what touched him, but because I stayed still, he never caught sight of me even though I was right in front of him. "Who pet me? Pet? Pot? Pat? Pet?!" Doggo began to babble from the startle I gave him, and I heard Leah snicker somewhere behind me from Doggo's antics. When he still couldn't find anything, Doggo quickly sheathed his swords and leaped back over the counter into his sentry station, and with that, our souls returned to our bodies. "S-S-S-Something pet me..." Doggo stuttered out, still looking around suspiciously. "Something that isn't m-m-moving... I'm gonna need some dog treats for this!" And with that, Doggo ducked underneath the counter, disappearing from sight. 

     "There's our chance!" Sabine whispered. We all quickly hurried past the sentry station, getting out of there as fast and as quietly as we could. We reached another bend in the path, and my friends ran on ahead as we escaped from Doggo's sentry point. Before I rounded the bend though, I noticed an odd pile of dog treats in the snow. They were seemingly broken in half, but the broken ends were blackened and smelled funny...

      _Somebody's been smoking dog treats..._

I didn't even bother wondering how it was possible and kept on running, quickly catching up to my friends as soon as we felt we were out of Doggo's sight. 

     "He... He really tried to attack us!" Leah spoke through her panting. "What if we were killed?!"

     "But we  _weren't_ killed, so don't worry about it so much! It's over now." Gracia shot back. "Toriel warned us that wewere going to get into fights sometimes, remember?"

     "She told us that they -- or Asgore -- would kill us." I spoke without thinking, and I felt everybody's eyes on me. "I didn't know what she meant by that before, since every other monster we encountered was civil or even kind to us..." I trailed off and stared into the snow at my feet. "... Now I understand that she wasn't kidding. Some monsters actually do want us harmed, or worse..." I'm usually more tactful and aware of how my words can affect the group's emotions, but I wasn't thinking about that right then. I was trying to piece it together in my head and thought aloud, but it was only a few seconds before I realized the troubled looks on my friends and Gracia's angry expression as she looked to me.

     "Manon, you're not helping here." She almost growled. "We can't focus on things like that right now. We've got to accomplish our goal of getting home step by step, but we aren't going to get anywhere if we sit around and worry about how we're going to be treated down here." Gracia folded her arms. "We need to keep moving and just do our best to dissolve conflict, just like we've done all the other times." She looked each one of us in the eyes. "We can do this. We can get home. We'll be okay." Her tone was so convincing that I almost wanted to cast away my own anxieties and believe her wholeheartedly, but I felt like my cautionary approach wasn't as stupid or hindering as she was making it out to be. I debated on whether I should say something, but I held my tongue. Arguing wasn't going to help us either.

     "Hey." A sudden, yet familiar voice startled me. We all looked up and saw none other than Sans, standing a few feet away from us with his hands in his hoodie pockets, like usual. "You kids look a little shaken." He observed.

     "No shit, Sherlock," Gracia sassed. "We almost got diced up by a dog!"

     Sans seemed a little confused for a moment, then understanding seemed to hit him. "Ah, so you met Doggo." He chuckled a bit, that smile never leaving his face. "Don't mind him, he's a bit too serious when he's on the job. I guarantee that he's much more mild and friendly when he's off duty." The skeleton shifted his weight to his left side. "But hey, here's something important to remember: my brother has a very special attack. If you see blue magic, don't move, and you won't get hurt. An easy way to remember it is imagining a stop sign. If you see a stop sign, then you stop, right? So just imagine a blue stop sign. Simple, right?"

     "We already figured that out," Leah replied. "Doggo used blue magic on us." I nodded in agreement.

     Sans shrugged, a glint of something in his eye... was it amusement? "Welp, now that you know it twice, looks like your knowledge of blue magic has...  _doubled."_ Sans winked after the pun, which got a groan or two from some, but a chuckle and a smile from myself and Thomas. 

     "Say, Sans..." Jeanette began. "How much farther until we hit that town you mentioned earlier?"

     "Well," Sans began. "To the north is ice... South is ice... West is ice, too..." He pointed to each respective direction as he spoke, amused with his own smart-ass responses. "And to the east is Snowdin Town... and ice, of course." He pointed eastward, and all of our gazes followed his gesture, but all we could see was ice and no town.

     "But how far east do we...?" I began to ask, but when I tried to look back at Sans again, he was already gone. Confused, I looked all around the vicinity, but there was no sign of the skeleton. "... Where the hell did he go?"

     "Did anybody see him leave?" Leah asked, but nobody could answer. 

     "I'm tellin' ya," Jeanette chimed in. "He moves too fuckin' fast for my liking."

     "We should follow his directions, though." Gracia added, then lead the way as she set out eastward. We followed behind her, venturing further and further into the snowy forest.

      


End file.
